Prisoner of War | Ukraine Marines | Tortured in Captivity by Russia | Aiden Aslin (Round 2)

Combat Story

Ryan Fugit

History

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2022

⏱️ 129 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the true and frightening Combat Story of Aiden Aslin, a British citizen fighting for the Ukrainian military who was taken as a POW in February 2022 and then beaten and stabbed by his Russian captors for over five months.

Listeners will recall our first interview with Aiden from Feb 5th, 2022 (https://youtu.be/IbHSQ1xzpRc), just weeks before the Russian invasion where he predicted what would come after two deployments to the frontlines in Ukraine and significant fighting in Syria.

Aiden was fighting on the front lines in the Donbas region of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, when Russia, completely unprovoked, invaded Ukraine. His unit fell back to the steel factory Mariupol where it was surrounded by Russian and Donetsk People’s Republic (or DPR, which is Russia’s foot soldiers and lackeys in Donetsk).

Out of food and ammunition, Aiden’s unit would eventually surrender to the Russian military which promptly handed Aiden over to the DPR for regular beatings and violations of the Geneva Convention which surprised nobody.

In our interview, Aiden recounts the harrowing experience of being on the frontlines when Russia invaded and how he survived captivity, without any of the advanced training that people like myself received regularly while in service to survive and escape these situations to return with dignity.

I’m sure you will be amazed at Aiden’s spirit and strength that pulled him through this difficult time and it will be a stark reminder for each of us that our day-to-day problems are not as hard as we might think when compared with what he endured.

As you can imagine, I was elated to hear of Aiden’s release in September and was nearly brought to tears after seeing his face again as we started this interview. Please enjoy this rare glimpse of hope and optimism from someone who survived a history-altering invasion and months in captivity as a modern-day POW as much as I did.

Definitions:

You’ll hear a reference to “GRADS” which is a mobile artillery vehicle used by the Russians that fire 122mm rounds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BM-21_Grad).

You'll hear DPR, which is the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Find Aiden Online:

- Conflict Dispatch https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2y-SiuIRHPpnUpcWgZRLgw

- Instagram @CossackGundi https://www.instagram.com/cossackgundi/?hl=en

Find Ryan Online:

- Ryan’s Linktree https://linktr.ee/combatstory
- Merch https://www.bonfire.com/store/combatstory/
- Instagram @combatstory https://www.instagram.com/combatstory
- Facebook @combatstoryofficial https://fb.me/combatstoryofficial
- Send us messages at https://m.me/combatstoryofficial
- Email [email protected]
- Learn more about Ryan www.combatstory.com/aboutus
- Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle

Show Notes:

0:00 - Intro
1:05 - Guest Introduction (Aiden Aslin)
2:59 - Interview begins
8:19 - Fighting on the front lines February 24, 2022 when Russia invades Ukraine
37:47 - Knowing they were encircled
50:33 - Being on the receiving end of an air strike
56:52 - Choosing to surrender and live
1:01:20 - Steps taken while preparing for surrender
1:09:09 - Being processed by Russion military after surrender
1:22:33 - Interrogations and beatings and getting stabbed
1:30:28 - Keeping spirits up in the cell
and making propaganda videos
1:38:30 - False charges and getting sentanced to death
1:41:50 - What kept you going?
1:48:14 - Returning with dignity
and being POW in the era of technology
1:56:04 - What did you want to do when you had your freedom?
2:02:43 - Are you going do anything differently now?
2:06:52 - Listener comments and shout outs

This video covers the following subjects:

- Prisoner of War
- Ukraine Marines
- Tortured in Captivity by Russia
- Ukraine Military
- Ukraine War
- POW
- Modern POW

Aiden Aslin is a British-born dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Ukraine who was captured by Russian forces in April 2022 while fighting as a Ukrainian Marine in Mariupol. He was sentenced to death on 9 June by authorities of the Russian-backed breakaway unrecognized puppet state. Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) for "mercenary activities and committing actions aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order of the DPR. He was released from Russian captivity in a prisoner exchange in September 2022.

If you would like to learn more about Prisoner of War, Aiden Aslin I suggest you look into our various other video clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCyApoJr-mNmdMNwdk22xEQ

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's either surrender or probably get killed and the spoke to her but I was like saying to like can you like wake Diane like my fiance.
0:08.0	I just wake her up and get her to call me so I can speak to her one last time and I remember speaking to her and like just talking to her happily.
0:17.0	I just trying to act like I wasn't like face too much and she was like super like like quietish here crying obviously I was like telling like don't worry like.
0:28.0	I will come back to you like a promise when I was being beaten. I was still I was still able to like speak to myself.
0:37.0	It's like really hard to explain. I was like speaking to myself and inside my head and I was just like kept telling myself like it's going to end eventually.
0:45.0	It's going to end let you've got to survive.
0:47.0	Welcome to Combat Story. I'm Ryan Fugid and I serve Warzone tours as an Army attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15 year career.
0:55.0	I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat. On this show I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt like on their front lines.
1:04.0	This is Combat Story. This is the true and frightening combat story of Aiden Aslan. The British citizen fighting for the Ukrainian military who was taken as POW and then beaten and stabbed by his Russian captors for over five months.
1:19.0	Listeners will recall our first interview with Aiden from February 5th of this year. Just weeks before the Russian invasion where he predicted what would come after two deployments to the front lines in Ukraine and significant fighting in Syria.
1:32.0	Aiden was fighting on the front lines in the Donbass region of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 when Russia completely unprovoked and invaded Ukraine.
1:42.0	His unit fell back to the steel factory in Mary Opel where he was surrounded by Russian and Denetsk. People's Republic or DPR basically rushes foot soldiers and lackeys in Denetsk.
1:53.0	Out of food and ammunition Aiden's unit would eventually surrender to the Russian military which promptly handed Aiden over to the DPR for regular beatings and violations of the Geneva Convention which surprised nobody.
2:07.0	In our interview Aiden recounts the heroine experience of being on the front lines when Russia invaded, how we survive captivity and without any of the advanced training that people like myself received regularly while in service to survive and escape these conditions and to return with dignity.
2:23.0	I am sure you will be as amazed as I was at Aiden's spirit and strength that pulled him through this difficult time and it will be a stark reminder for each of us that our day-to-day problems are not as hard as we might think when compared with what he endured.
2:37.0	As you can imagine, I was elated to hear of Aiden's release in September and was nearly brought to tears after seeing his face again as we started this interview.
2:46.0	Please enjoy this rare glimpse of hope and optimism from someone who survived a history, altering invasion and months in captivity as a modern day POW as much as I did.
2:59.0	Aiden, thank you so much for coming back to share this, what has to be just an incredible story with us again here.
3:06.0	Yeah, it's a pleasure to be back on the show.
3:10.0	So, you know, since the last time we talked, we published our first go-around in February. Has anything big happened since then?
3:19.0	Not really, it's been like a pretty normal year, you know.
3:23.0	I finished my military service in October, you know, spent like the past year, like on the death row.
	...

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