'Ukrainian artillery' strikes Russian-backed rebel HQ in Donetsk

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‘Ukrainian artillery’ strikes Russian-backed rebel HQ in Donetsk – a day after its sham court sentenced two Britons to death by firing squad

Explosion hit rebel headquarters in so-called People’s Republic of Donetsk today
Rebel chiefs accused Ukraine of targeting the building using French artillery
Comes just a day after same government sentenced two Britons to death
United Nations said sentence violates international law and is a war crime

Published: 16:07 BST, 10 June 2022 | Updated: 16:08 BST, 10 June 2022

An explosion rocked the headquarters of a Russian-backed rebel group in eastern Ukraine today, just a day after it sentenced two Britons to death.

Smoke was seen rising over the headquarters of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, in occupied eastern Ukraine, on Friday afternoon.

Russian-backed rebel forces in the area said Ukraine had carried out the strike using long-range French artillery, though denied anyone had been injured.

It is not clear why the HQ was hit today, but it comes just hours after the region’s sham court sentenced Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner to death for being ‘foreign mercenaries’ after they were captured fighting near Mariupol.

Aslin and Pinner are, in fact, regular members of the Ukrainian marines who have been living in the country and serving in the military for years.

Smoke rises from the HQ of the Russian-backed rebel government in the city of Donetsk, as it was hit by an explosion just hours after it sentenced two Britons to death

Aiden Aslin (left) and Shaun Pinner (centre) were condemned to death for being ‘foreign mercenaries’ in Ukraine, despite them being regular members of the military

Under international law that makes them prisoners of war, which protects them from prosecution for taking part in the fighting.

The United Nations said today that ‘such trials against prisoners of war amount to a war crime.’

It comes after condemnation from Ukraine, the UK and their western allies who have called for the pair to be taken to a PoW camp and exchanged in a prisoner swap.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he is ‘appalled’ at the sentences, while Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the punishments were an ‘egregious breach of the Geneva convention’.

The ‘supreme court of the Donetsk People’s Republic,’ one of two self-proclaimed statelets in eastern Ukraine, ordered the death penalty for Aslin, 28, Pinner, 48, and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim after the three were accused of acting as mercenaries.

Russia’s Interfax news agency said Thursday that the two UK citizens surrendered in April in Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine that was captured by Russian troops after a weeks-long siege.

Aiden Aslin (right) and Shaun Pinner (left) were detained in April during the siege of Mariupol while fighting in Ukraine, before appearing in court in the separatist region of Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and handed death sentences after a show trial

Aiden Aslin

Born: 1994, Newark-on-Trent

Worked as: Care worker

Combat experience: Travelled to Syria in 2015 to fight for the Kurds in a western-backed alliance against ISIS.

He made headlines on his return to the UK in 2016 when he was arrested, charged with terrorism offences, and then kept on bail until all charges were dropped following protests.

Aslin then returned to Syria in 2017 to help in the fight to re-take the city of Raqqa, which had been the de-facto capital of ISIS’s terror-state.

Journey to Ukraine: After being arrested in the UK a second time trying to return from Syria via Greece, Aslin moved to Ukraine after falling for a woman from the city of Mykolaiv.

Having heard about Ukraine’s fight against Russia in Donbas from Ukrainian volunteers in Syria, he was persuaded to join the military and in 2018 signed up as a marine.

Aslin completed three tours of the frontline and was dug into trenches in the Donbas in late February when Putin’s troops stormed across the border in a second invasion.

He ended up falling back to the nearby city of Mariupol where he fought for weeks under siege, before being captured in April after his unit ran out of ammunition.

Shaun Pinner

Born: 1974, Bedfordshire

Worked as: A British Army veteran, having served for years in the Royal Anglian regiment.

Combat experience: Fought ‘many’ tours including in northern Ireland, according to his family, who said he also served with United Nations missions in Bosnia.

Journey to Ukraine: Pinner moved to Ukraine in 2018 which he made his ‘adopted home’ and decided to put his military training to use fighting Russian-backed rebels in the country’s eastern Donbas.

He became engaged to a Ukrainian woman and worked his way into the marines, where he had been serving for the last two years.

Pinner’s three-year contract with the marines was due to end at the end of this year, his family said, when he wanted to become a humanitarian worker in the country.

Pinner was helping to defend the frontlines in Donbas when Putin’s invasion began on February 24.

His unit of marines ended up hooking up with the Azov Battalion – members of the national guard with links to neo-Nazis – who were defending the city of Mariupol from the Russians.

He was captured in Mariupol in April and paraded on state TV.

‘The prime minister was appalled at the sentencing of these men,’ Johnson’s spokesman told reporters.

‘We are clear that we are supporting Ukraine in its efforts to get these men released. It is clear they were Ukrainian armed forces members and are therefore prisoners of war,’ he said.

Both the Britons have been living in Ukraine since 2018 and signed up to fight when Russia invaded, according to UK media. Pinner is married to a Ukrainian woman, and Aslin is engaged to a local.

‘They are not, and never were, mercenaries,’ Aslin’s family said in a statement.

‘We hope that this sentence will be overturned and beseech the governments of the UK and Ukraine to do everything in their power to have them returned to us safely, and soon.’

In April, the two Britons were shown on Russian state TV, demanding Johnson negotiate their release. Pinner’s Conservative MP Robert Jenrick demanded the Russian ambassador in London be summoned.

But the government is reluctant to engage bilaterally with Moscow, fearing that would reinforce the claim that the captured fighters were mercenaries.

During a trial that lasted three days, the men pleaded guilty to committing ‘actions aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order of the Donetsk People’s Republic’, Interfax said.