A British POW held captive by Russia for months after being caught fighting for Ukraine was rescued by an unlikely figure while waiting to be executed.
Aiden Aslin was put on 'death row' after being tried in a kangaroo court along with fellow defendants Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saadoune.
The 29-year-old, from Newark, Nottinghamshire, had enlisted with the Ukrainian 36th Naval Infantry Brigade in 2018 before being deployed to Mariupol after Vladimir Putin's invasion was launched in February 2022.
The port city was bombarded for weeks by the invading forces before they took control - with Aiden surrendering on April 12 last year.
He, Shaun and Brahim were sentenced to death on June 9 in breakaway puppet state the Donetsk People's Republic. They were convicted of "mercenary activities and committing actions aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order of the DPR".
Writing in the Daily Mail, Adien described his mood during much of his time in prison as "utterly bleak".
He was forced to take part in "relentless propaganda" videos, while also being beaten, stabbed and watching a fellow prisoner be killed.
A sadistic guard - while playing mind games - forced the inmates to shout "president of the world" whenever he'd say "Putin".
But Aiden feared the worst when - while running on autopilot - he shouted "khuylo", which means "d***head" in Russian, by mistake. A sleepless night followed.
As the weeks dragged on, he found a razor hidden in the bars by an open window and kept it secret, admitting he is sickened to look back now at how his captors had "broken" him.
"Humiliated, broken, bullied, I longed to end it all. I spent a few nights unable to sleep, just thinking of taking the razor and using it on my wrists," he said.
His defence lawyer told him his appeal would be heard on September 16 but that date came and went.
Then on September 23 he heard a guard murmur: "They’re going home."
Aiden and his cellmate, Vjekoslav Prebeg, a Croatian in his marine battalion and a good friend, were skeptical.
The guards put hoods over their heads and led them out and down into a basement.
Their hoods were removed and a guard filmed them on his phone singing the Russian national anthem as part of a final humiliation.
But suddenly there was some hope: Aiden heard them ask Vjekoslav: "You are not going to pick up a weapon again, right?"
His heart was racing, but he wouldn't let himself have any hope. "We were like dogs that had been cruelly beaten so often that we cowered in the corner when the door to our kennel was opened," he said.
They were loaded into a lorry, hoods on and sealed with duct tape. The journey lasted hours and if anyone complained about the pain or needing the toilet they were tasered.
But when they finally stopped and their hoods were removed, they found they were at Rostov-on-Don airport in south-western Russia.
Alongside guards, they were taken into an empty departure lounge where Arab men handed out water. Aiden noticed another man, who held back behind them.
Russian military police then loaded him and four other British prisoners, including Shaun, onto a bus. They were driven to a private plane and told if they didn't follow the rules exactly they'd be tasered.
The "luxuriously kitted out" jet had been chartered by the Saudis - and the mysterious figure in the airport was there to shake their hands at the door.
It was former Chelsea owner and Putin oligarch Roman Abramovich.
They were "treated like royalty" and given sandwiches and kebabs, then iPhone 13s, a pack of clothes and a toilet bag.
Aiden was even able to take a bath mid-flight and "wash away months of prison filth" before also throwing away his prison clothes, which were ridden with lice.
They landed in Saudi capital Riyadh and were taken to a vast banqueting hall. Aiden and the others learned they had been swapped, along with 200-plus Ukrainians, for 50 Russians and the oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, a Putin favourite.
Aiden said he was grateful to Abramovich and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, though considers them "knights in dark satin, playing a game with the Kremlin for their own purposes".
Either way, he couldn't believe his eyes when he flew back to London and saw his family and fiancee, Diana again.
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