meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
This Is Why

'This is how I die': British fighter tortured by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine

This Is Why

Sky News

News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.0552 Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

British man Aiden Aslin joined the Ukrainian marines in 2018, but following the Russian invasion in February 2022, he was called up to the frontline in Mariupol.

After two months of resistance at the city's steelworks, Aiden and his battalion ran out of supplies. Aiden was part of the mass surrender of over 1,000 Ukrainian troops.

Singled out for his British passport, Aiden was brutally interrogated, turned into a propaganda tool, tried by a kangaroo court and then sentenced to death.

Aiden was held in Russian captivity for six months, before being released last year in a prisoner of war exchange negotiated by the Saudi authorities.

On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson sits down with Aiden Aslin to hear his story.

Producers: Soila Apparicio, Alex Edden, Rosie Gillott
Promotions producers: David Chipakupaku, Jim Farthing
Editor: Wendy Parker

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Add water to your will.

0:02.0

And know that from that single drop,

0:05.0

life will grow.

0:08.0

Communities will flourish.

0:10.0

A better world will be left.

0:13.0

By leaving a gift in your will to Water Aid,

0:16.0

you'll help bring essential clean water to people who need it,

0:20.0

to change their own lives for generations

0:22.4

to come. Add water aid to your will. Search WaterAid legacy to find out how. You know, when Helen

0:31.0

used to get home from work, I'd ask, how are you? Fine, she'd say. She clearly wasn't. After 10 years in IT, she was on autopilot. Then she found

0:42.3

this job, training up-and-coming tech wizas at the college, same skills but with new people, new challenges.

0:49.8

Now when she gets back, I get the full debrief. Can't get a word in.

0:55.0

Give your skills new life. Train others. Search jobs in further education.

1:03.8

I'm Sahar Zand, the host of Dirty Work, a podcast series for Sky News about the world's largest police organization, Interpol.

1:12.5

Interpol's red notices are essentially a digital wanted person poster,

1:16.8

meant to help the police forces around the world to catch some of the world's most dangerous

1:20.5

fugitive criminals.

1:22.2

But our investigation has revealed how red notices are also vulnerable to abuse by those in power, like authoritarian regimes,

1:29.8

to make life hell for the people they don't like. In our second episode, I take you to Interpol's

1:35.1

headquarters in Leon to meet the man in charge, the general secretary of Interpol Juergenstuck.

1:41.6

He's adamant that Interpol is working as it should and that he has fixed the

1:46.7

problems. But I encourage you to hear the stories of the people we've spoken to who found themselves

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sky News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Sky News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.