Shaun Pinner tells GMB he was stunned with cattle prod for being West Ham fan while held by Russia

By William On Sep 26, 2022

Freed British hostage Shaun Pinner has revealed he was stunned with a prod for being a West Ham fan while being held by Russian forces in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill were released from captivity by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine’s Donetsk region after being sentenced to death and serving months in custody.

Former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has reportedly negotiated the prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, with the British traveling home via Saudi Arabia.

This morning, Mr. Aslin, 28, and Mr. Pinner, 48, were featured in their first live joint TV interview since finally coming home to their families.

Pinner told ITV’s Good Morning Britain about the treatment he received at the hands of Russian-backed guards – and how he was punished in response to which football team he supported.

Shaun Pinner has revealed he was stunned with a cattle prod for being a West Ham fan while being held captive by Russian troops in Ukraine

Mr Aslin, 28, and Mr Pinner, 48, were featured in their first live joint TV interview since finally coming home to their families

Mr Aslin said it ‘still hasn’t sunk in’ that he is back home in the UK as he spoke about their experience

“We developed a comical rapport with some guards over time,” he said.

“It was a strange feeling because we were told we were the enemy, but sometimes we actually had a dialogue with them,” he said.

“They were interested in who we are, what London is like…”

He talked about a time when he was in the prosecutor’s office and the guards asked which football team he supported.

Mr Pinner said he was buzzed with a prod for saying ‘West – [Ham]’ – before quickly changing his answer to the local Ukrainian football team.

‘I said, ‘Shakhtar Donetsk, Shakhtar Donetsk!’ and they laughed and built that rapport,’ he said.

Mr Pinner said he was buzzed with a prod for saying ‘West – [Ham]’ – before quickly changing his answer to the local Ukrainian football team

The pair were released from captivity by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine’s Donetsk region

Safe at home: Aiden (right) posted a photo to Instagram on the plane home along with fellow ex-hostages Shaun Pinner (second from right), John Harding (left) and Dylan Healy (sat behind)

Mr Pinner – who spoke about how his wife encouraged them to keep fighting – is back home with his family

Mr Aslin, who said he was beaten, stabbed and psychologically tormented, said it has “still not sunk in” that he is back home in the UK.

He told GMB: “It’s still a bit unreal because as I said before, literally this time last week I was in solitary confinement, we were treated in appalling conditions there and I expected either to be killed or to be killed.” would spend money there for at least 10 years, so it’s not fully established yet.’

He said they had been wary of everything that had happened for the past six months.

The British prisoners were given a last-minute reprieve months after their death sentences

The State Department has released this undated photo of Shaun smiling with his family, believed to have been taken after returning home in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Aiden promised Ukrainian friend Diane Okovyta that he would see her again. But during the five months of solitary confinement, he admitted: ‘I never thought I’d get out alive’

Pinner said the experience of being detained by Russian-backed forces in the Donetsk region was “very scary,” despite being trained in the British military and aware of the risks of capture while fighting for Ukraine.

He was asked about a moment when he was about to give up after being sentenced to death, and called his wife to say, “I think it’s all over.”

Mr Pinner told GMB his wife replied: ‘You guys have brought Mariupol to the world’s attention, you are fighters, what you are doing is great, tell the boys to keep fighting. Just survive – she yelled at us. It kept us going all the way.’

Asked about supporting comments from Liz Truss when she was Foreign Secretary about Britons fighting in Ukraine, Mr Pinner added: ‘Of course we have a big thank you to Liz Truss… the Foreign Office was great, but then we when we saw this we knew that in Ukraine you get all kinds of people who then want to be part of the war.

“We were actually integrated, spent time there learning the language (and had military training in Ukraine), so they wanted us to help train their boys and in that respect we fell back into the job.”

Pinner (right) and Aslin (left) were sentenced to death in June this year along with Moroccan Saaudun Brahim (center) by a pro-Russian separatist court

Aiden Aslin returns to his home in Balderton, Newark, after being released from custody by Russian-winged separatists after months in custody

Ms Truss later withdrew her support for British citizens joining the fray after being contradicted by colleagues, claiming instead that she was merely “expressing support for the Ukrainian cause”.

The exhausted group landed in Britain in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The release came after the Saudi crown prince signed an agreement to release a total of 10 POWs captured during the fighting.

Messrs. Harding, Pinner and Aslin were hailed by their former commander in Ukraine as defenders of ‘democracy and freedom’.

They are said to have served in the Georgian Legion, a pro-Ukrainian volunteer unit, under Mamuka Mamulashvili.

Pinner’s sister Cassandra previously told MailOnline: “We are just relieved that he is home safe and sound, there are no words to express how grateful we are.

“He’s in a good mood, he’s still his funny self, even in this difficult time. In terms of health, he is also doing surprisingly well.’

Meanwhile, Mr Aslin spoke of his ‘traumatic experience’ as he was reunited with family at home in Balderton, Nottinghamshire.