Thugs holding British fighters captured in Ukraine forced them to call The Sun to beg for their lives

RUSSIAN-backed thugs holding two British fighters captured in Ukraine forced them to call The Sun begging for their lives before their kangaroo court trial, we can now reveal.

Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin both rang our newsdesk with virtually the same scripted pleas.

Using a satellite phone, they warned they faced the death penalty unless the demands of the Kremlin henchmen holding them were met. 

His voice shaking with emotion, Shaun told The Sun he was facing 20 years in jail or death after being charged with being an “illegal combatant”. He added: “We’re scared.”

The pair — captured in Mariupol — were feared to have called at gunpoint on April 25, in a breach of the Geneva Convention protecting PoWs. 

Over the next four weeks, they made six more calls to our newsroom with similar scripted messages.

But The Sun was urged by Foreign Office chiefs not to publish their pleas despite agreeing not to detail the demands of their Russian captors.

Shaun’s mum Denise Price, 65, who also got a call, said: “It seems he is being used for propaganda.”

The Foreign Office last night declined to comment.