Briton Aiden Aslin joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2018. From the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, he served in a marine brigade. Aiden defended Mariupol, where he was later captured and held hostage by Russians. The so-called “DPR” court sentenced him to death. In September 2022, Aiden was freed. After he was exchanged, Aiden wrote an autobiographical book, “Putin’s Prisoner: My Time as a Prisoner of War in Ukraine”, which has been recently released in Britain.
“Until 2014, I was working with a number of social support programs in Britain and I knew little about Ukraine. That was until Maidan happened”, he recalls. — “I’ve been following Maidan events from the very first protest. Then I saw the atrocities committed by “Berkut” [Ukrainian special police forces], and I saw when Russia invaded Crimea. I followed everything that’s been happening.
At that time it was difficult for me to comprehend what was actually going on. I was somehow confused because I was not very well versed in the history of Ukraine and, in particular, the history of Crimea. It was difficult to support one of the sides, because I heard different things, especially through the Russian propagandist media”.
When he was captured, Aiden did not expect it to be easy out there: “I knew a lot about the attitude of the Russians to prisoners in Georgia or Chechnya. I knew how they treated the captives in Syria. Hence I understood that it absolutely wouldn’t be easy”.
Shortly before I was captured, I was talking to my wounded friend. He said he was thinking of committing a suicide instead of surrendering. I did not know what awaited us, but I tried to assure him that we would definitely return from captivity.
During my first month in captivity, there was absolutely no access to information from the outside world. On top of that they have been constantly feeding us endless Russian propaganda. Every day we were forced to listen to Solovyov [ill-famed Russian propagandist, TV presenter and a faithful supporter of Putin] on the radio. If it wasn’t Solovyov, then it was some Soviet propagandist music. The boys were watching and listening to all of it, and could partially figure out what was really happening in Ukraine. When Russians were pushed out of the Kharkiv region, they did not announce it directly, but from the way they phrased it, it was not difficult to guess what had really happened there.”
Later on Russians started using Aiden for their propaganda, filming a number of videos with him.
“Russians would beat me up, they cut me with a knife, they hacked into my social networks and eventually they started exploiting me for their propaganda. Yet, this is nothing compared to what Ukrainians had gone through”, says the Aiden. — “During four months I was regularly taken out of my cell to film various propagandist videos, and at some point it got so bad that I myself began to believe in what I was made to say. Before I was captured, I warned my mother that things like this could happen and I could be exploited this way. Thus, for example, if I lie, I would scratch my nose in the video. I would change my voice, put on some weird accent so people who knew me could tell there was something wrong with me. The first videos demonstrated that I was speaking under duress.
After some time I got used to it. It’s like dog training. I believe it is very important for the families of the prisoners like myself to understand: whatever they see or hear from their own relatives, whatever lies or nonsense they say on the video, it is forced and coerced. These people try to adapt to the circumstances in order to survive, and you don’t need to pay attention to what’s being said or take it seriously”.
When asked about what has helped him the most while in captivity, Aiden immediately smiles and looks at his girlfriend. “Diana!” he says.
“The boys with whom I was in captivity helped me a lot – my friends, my brothers in arms, also some people whom I only got to know better while we were in there. There was this guy, who spoke English. I understand Ukrainian quite well. Although it is still difficult for me to speak, in a critical and hopeless situation I somehow manage and wriggle out”, explains Aiden. — After the so-called ‘trial’, when I was sentenced to death and returned to the cell, the guys told me: “Don’t listen to it! It won’t happen, it is a lie.” I found out about the prisoner swap unexpectedly. It was completely out of the blue. At first I thought they came for me again to record another of their propagandist videos. But then they also shouted the name of my cellmate, who had never been summoned for propaganda before and this way I knew something was up.
I thought I might have heard the word “exchange” from their superiors, but at that time I wasn’t sure. They were confident I wasn’t able to understand a word they said. And then we were led to a truck where the other POWs were already waiting for us.
“I only realised that I was finally free when we flew to Saudi Arabia. There, I cried for the first time. While in captivity, even when I wanted to cry, I couldn’t let myself do it”
Two weeks before I was exchanged, I was this close to suicide. I found a razor blade and gave it a serious thought. Ultimately, I convinced myself not to do it because I was worried that the guy, who was in the same cell with me, would be punished for it. And after two weeks I was exchanged.
No matter how long it takes, the boys and girls will return home. You have to be strong and patient until that moment comes. Most likely it will happen suddenly, like it happened to me”.
Aiden strongly believes that Ukraine must win this war:
“Before the war I knew that Russians were the bad guys, and after spending time in Russian captivity and experiencing it all from within, I became even more confident that Ukraine has no other choice, but to win this war.
Russians accuse us of Nazism or Fascism, but ironically it is their narratives, their behavior, what they say and what they do, all of those clearly show that it is them, who are all those things. They wiped Mariupol off the face of the earth, they deported the city’s inhabitants and brought Russians to live there, they keep deporting the indigenous population. This is what Stalin used to do.”
Aiden’s book, “Putin’s Prisoner: My Time as a Prisoner of War in Ukraine”, in which he describes his experience of Russian captivity, was recently published in the UK.
“Some people who have already read it, say that this is a cool insight, that the book shows how this Russian war machine works; that it is an entire system and not simply an isolated case. There is no Ukrainian translation yet, but I do hope that some publishing house in Ukraine will be interested in translating it.
Before the full-scale Russian invasion, most people in Britain had no idea that there was a war going on. Now the majority of Brits support Ukraine. Our society is unanimous on this matter. In England, in terms of history priorities are well set – the history is remembered and well studied. People tend to draw certain parallels and they understand that this is how the world wars began in the past, and they do not want a repetition.”
