The British fighters sentenced to death in a Russia-backed sham trial may have been tricked into admitting to terror charges, claim reports.
Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28, both pleaded guilty when they appeared in court in Russia-controlled Donetsk charged with “undergoing training with the aim of carrying out terrorist activities”.
However, The Sun reports that both men called the paper’s news desk several weeks ago to insist they were legally fighting for Ukraine after settling there and becoming citizens.
Meanwhile their families are reportedly concerned that they were tricked into entering guilty pleas in the belief it would lead to a lesser sentence.
The outlet says that recordings of their calls to the paper detail how the pair felt that they were legal combatants in Ukraine, and as such should be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.
Those accounts are in contrast to the guilty pleas entered by the men in a Kremlin-controlled kangaroo court earlier this week.
The charges were issued in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia president Vladimir Putin's regime.
Mr Pinner told The Sun on April 25: “We’re scared to death. Mariupol is my adopted city.
"I’m not a freedom fighter — Mariupol is my home.”
Mr Aslin said he thought that Russia could be using the pair in order to create a future prisoner exchange.
He said: “They have agreed to do a prisoner exchange with myself and Shaun. It is important Boris Johnson is able to help influence this decision.”
They are believed to have been taken at gunpoint. The Sun said their calls were not reported at the time they were made due to Foreign Office advice that it may “impact their safety”.
On Thursday a friend of Mr Aslin insisted the death sentence handed to the pair would “invigorate” those in Ukraine still resisting Putin's forces.
Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti reported that the trio are set to face a firing squad but Brennan Phillips, an American former soldier who met Mr Aslin in Syria and worked alongside him in Ukraine, said the judgement is a “provocation”.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Mr Phillips said: “I think it will invigorate people more than anything.
“Whatever effect they thought they would have in this provocation, I don’t think that and I don’t think it’s going to be well-received. And they did this as a provocation.”
