Moscow may be plotting to use the two Britons sentenced to death for fighting Russian forces as bargaining chips in a prisoner exchange for a close friend of president Vladimir Putin, reports claim.
Aiden Aslin, 28, from Nottinghamshire, and Shaun Pinner, 48, from Bedfordshire were captured earlier in the war. A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic handed down death sentences on Thursday.
The foreign secretary has called it a “sham judgement”, insisting it has “absolutely no legitimacy”.
In the wake of their detention in April, the pair appeared in videos asking to be part of a prisoner swap in exchange for pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk - who claims his “personal friend” Putin is godfather to his daughter - who was being held by Ukraine.
Mr Aslin told Russian TV after his arrest: “If Boris Johnson really does care like he says he does about British citizens, then he would help pressure Zelensky to do the right thing and return Viktor to his family and return us to our families.”
