Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, the two British nationals who surrendered to Russian forces in Ukraine, have appealed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, asking him for assistance in swapping them for Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
"I'd like to appeal to the government to send me back home. I'd like to see my wife again," Pinner said in an appeal that aired on Russia's Rossiya 1 TV channel on Monday. "Hi Mr. Boris Johnson. Obviously, I'm Shaun Pinner. A lot's gone on over the last five or six weeks that I'm not fully aware of. Obviously, I understand that Mr. Medvedchuk has been detained, and we look to exchange myself and Aiden Aslin for Mr. Medvedchuk. Obviously I would really appreciate your help in this matter," he said.
The mercenary said he and Aslin were being treated well, and said he understood the grave situation he was in.
"We've been fed, watered. That's all I can really say, but I beg on my behalf and Aiden Aslin's behalf to help us in an exchange for Mr. Medvedchuk," Pinner reiterated.
Captured British mercenaries Shawn Pinner and Aiden Aslin appeal to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to pressure Kiev to exchange them for detained Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Screengrab from Russian television.
© Photo : Screenshot / Rossiya 1
In his own appeal, Aslin suggested that if Mr. Johnson cares about the fate of British citizens, he would help put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to "do the right thing."
"I think Boris needs to listen to what Oksana [Marchenko, Viktor Medvedchuk's wife] has said. I remember seeing in the news when Viktor Medvedchuk was arrested for his political affiliations. If Boris Johnson really does care, like he says he does, about British citizens, then he would help pressure Zelensky to do the right thing and return Viktor to his family and return us to our families," Aslin said.
Separately on Monday, the Ukrainian Security Service published a video in which Medvedchuk asked the presidents of Russia and Ukraine to exchange him for Ukrainian soldiers and the residents of Mariupol.
"I, Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk, want to appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a request that the Ukrainian side exchange me for the defenders of Mariupol and the residents who are there today, and who do not have the opportunity to leave through humanitarian corridors," Medvedchuk said, reading a prepared text.
Medvedchuk did not elaborate on what Mariupol humanitarian corridors he was referring to. The strategic city along the Azov Sea coast has been fully cleared of Ukrainian army, neo-Nazi battalion and foreign mercenary forces, with the exception of the massive Azovstal metal and stealworks, where remaining forces are now trapped.
On Sunday, the Russian military promised to take the forces holed up in Azovstal alive if they laid down their arms and voluntarily surrendered. Later in the day, the Russian MoD reported, citing intercepted radio communications, that Kiev had ordered the Azov Regiment forces to shoot anyone - including both Ukrainian army and foreign mercenary fighters, if they attempted to surrender. The MoD estimated that about 400 foreigners from European countries as well as Canada are concentrated in the steel plant.
Oksana Marchenko has issued a series of appeals asking for help in freeing her husband from Ukrainian captivity. On Saturday, she turned to Putin, the Saudi crown prince, and Pinner and Aslin's families for assistance. Before that, she appealed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Also Saturday, a court in the western Ukrainian city of Lvov placed Medvedchuk under arrest without the possibility of bail.
Medvedchuk was detained in a "special operation" by Ukraine's Security Service last Tuesday after escaping house arrest in late February, fearing that ultranationalists would try to kill him amid the chaos rocking Kiev in the days following the start of the Russian-led military operation in Ukraine.
The opposition politician is a veteran lawmaker and local business tycoon who has spent years criticizing Ukraine's pro-Western authorities. Medvedchuk's repeated calls for forging closer political and economic ties with Ukraine's Russian and Belarusian neighbours, and Vladimir Putin's status as the godfather of his youngest daughter, has prompted Ukrainian and Western politicians and media to label him a "Russian puppet." The politician has vocally dismissed these charges, saying he wants to improve Kiev's relations with Moscow for the benefit of Ukraine, and that he has used his personal ties to the Russian president in Ukraine's interests -for example, to secure the exchange of prisoners during the eight-year-long war in the Donbass.