First horror pics of Brit fighter Aiden Aslin captured by Russian troops with gashes & swollen eye amid torture fears
A HERO Brit captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine has been pictured in captivity for the first time.
Aiden Aslin's picture was shared by a pro-Donetsk People's Republic Telegram account.
The 27-year-old former care worker, who has fought for the Ukrainian marines since 2018, was shown with cuts to his face, and his wrists in handcuffs.
A large cut and red mark on his forehead indicate he was hit with a blunt object resembling a rifle butt.
The picture was shared in a tweet from Aslin's Twitter profile, which has around 67k followers.
"Just got this, it looks as if they have gotten ahold of Aiden," the tweet read.
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Referring to his injuries, it added that his captors appeared to "have worked him over too by the looks of it".
The tweet went on: "We're going to keep in the public eye every day until he's exchanged."
Another picture of Aslin with the cut to his forehead clearly visible was shared by a Telegram account that posts propaganda supportive of the pro-Russian breakaway Donetsk People's Republic.
In a gloating post, the account wrote: "And here is a real English boy from the Ukrainian Marine Brigade, whom I wrote about yesterday and who, like the rest, chose life and the opportunity to see the Queen again.
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"That's who you need to take an example from other Ukrainian soldiers. Become an aristocrat too."
It isn't known where he is being held, but his battalion was forced to surrender earlier this week to Russian forces in the besieged city of Mariupol.
Brave Aiden from Newark, Nottinghamshire, who was serving with the 39th Brigade Ukrainian Marines and had previously fought ISIS in Syria, said they were left with no other option.
He is likely to be used by Vladimir Putin's murderous regime for propaganda, but could eventually be released as part of a prisoner exchange.
Speaking to The Sun, Aiden's grandmother Pam Hull said she was "shocked and very upset" to see the pictures of her grandson.
She also denied that he was a "mercenary" and said that Ukraine was "his adopted country".
"He has been in their military for four years now and his service was due to end this year," she said.
She added that he had fallen in love "with a Ukrainian woman and they are due to get married".
Pam went on: "It is very hard for his mum and all his family to see pictures like this and to hear the lies being said about him.
"He is a very brave lad with a good heart and we are all very proud of him."
Just got this, it looks as if they have gotten ahold of Aiden
Aiden Aslin Twitter account
In a snatched conversation before he and his unit were captured as PoWs, Aiden told one UK based pal: "It's been 48 days.
"We tried our best to defend Mariupol but we have no choice but to surrender to Russian forces."
He added: "We have no food and no ammunition. It's been a pleasure everyone, I hope this war ends soon."
In another call to a US-based pal he said he had been hunted by the Russian regime since the start of the war.
He said: "They're probably going to use me for bull**** propaganda."
In the recorded call he was asked if he had any civilian clothes to blend in as a humanitarian aid worker but says: "We already tried that and it didn't work.
"They're already looking for me anyway.
"I've been trying for like the past three weeks. It's going to be s***.
"Our commander is going to speak to the Russians soon. We've literally run out of ammunition."
Russia claimed it had captured more than 1,000 members of Aslin's brigade on Wednesday.
Ukraine's Azov regiment, which is also in Mariupol, later released a video of its own commander and that of the 36th, saying other members of the marine unit had been able to link up with the Azov in a nearby steel factory.
On Thursday, Ukraine said that 30 POWs were being returned to the country as part of the latest prisoner exchange with Russia, following an order from president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Aiden, who also goes by the name Cossack Gundi online, has shared a number of updates from the frontline in Ukraine on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
His online activity and anti-Russian posts describing Putin's troops as Orcs and Nazis have attracted death threats from the far-right Wagner Group mercenaries and made him a prime target, Aslin's friend Brennan Phillips warned.
Phillips, 36, a US former serviceman, trained Aslin to fight Islamic State militants in Syria in 2015.
He told : "I’m worried that he’s going to get tortured, I’m worried that he’s going to get murdered... that they will twist this as him being a foreign mercenary or part of a paramilitary organisation.
"Any excuse they can use to abuse him. That is what I’m most worried about."
Speaking to the BBC, Aslin's mother Ang Wood said he had been left with no choice but to surrender.
"He called me and said they have no weapons left to fight," she said. "I love my son, he is my hero - they put up one hell of a fight."
She also called for Boris Johnson to "take Putin down".
Following his capture, Aslin's fiancee posted on Facebook: "My warrior of light, warrior of good! You will definitely come back. Because light always conquers the darkness. And the darkest night is always before dawn."
Aslin is believed to have been fighting alongside two other British nationals in his unit, one of whom is reported to be former serviceman Shaun Pinner.
Earlier this month, a pro-Kremlin Telegram account claimed that a passport photocopy belonging to Pinner, 48, had been found among the remains of "some destroyed Nazis".
But days later, Aslin insisted that Pinner was still alive, adding: "Russians lie a lot."
Aslin previously travelled to Syria to fight alongside Kurdish armed forces against the Islamic State between 2015 and 2016.
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In a video recorded before the Russian invasion in February, he said he had joined the Ukrainian marines because he wouldn't "sit here and complain about everything, but go do something about it".
He added that war with Russia would mean "a lot of us will die, get seriously injured".
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