A British fighter captured in Ukraine by Russian forces says he was beaten up, stabbed, and 'treated worse than a dog'

• A British fighter who was captured by Russians in Ukraine was freed with other prisoners last week.
• Aiden Aslin told The Sun on Sunday that he was "treated worse than a dog" under Russian captivity.

A British man who was captured by Russian forces when fighting in Ukraine said he was kept in solitary confinement and beaten if he did not sing the Russian national anthem during his five months of captivity.

Aiden Aslin, 27, from Nottinghamshire, England, fought alongside Ukrainian troops in the besieged city of Mariupol earlier this year when he was forced to surrender to Russian-backed forces in April.

He was held in a detention center in the Moscow-backed Donetsk People's Republic before he was released in a prisoner exchange last week.

In his first interview since being freed, Aslin told UK newspaper The Sun on Sunday that he was kept in solitary confinement for five months and was "treated worse than a dog."

His cell, which measured 4 by 6 feet, was full of cockroaches and lice, Aslin added.

Aslin also told The Sun on Sunday that he was forced to sing the Russian national anthem every morning and yell "Glory to Russia" whenever a guard approached his cell.

If he did not comply, he would be "punished for it," Aslin said, adding: "You would get beaten."

In one incident, Aslin described being repeatedly beaten with a baton and one of the Russian officers threatening to cut his ear off.

When the officer showed him a knife, Aslin said he realized he had been stabbed in the back.

"He then asked me, 'Do you want a quick death or a beautiful death?'" Aslin told The Sun on Sunday.

"I replied in Russian, 'A quick death'. He smiled and said 'No, you're going to have a beautiful death ... and I'm going to make sure it's a beautiful death," he added.

Aslin was among the 10 international prisoners of war who were released by Russian authorities last week after a deal that was brokered by Saudi Arabia and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Five of prisoners, including Aslin, were British, while two were American, one was Moroccan, one Croatian and the other was a Swedish national.

Shaun Pinner, another British fighter who was released alongside Aslin, told Good Morning Britain on Monday that the whole experience was "very scary."

Describing the moment he boarded the plane to go home, Aslin told The Sun on Sunday: "Less than 48 hours earlier I was in solitary confinement, treated worse than a dog and now I was on a plane with people who didn't want to hurt me."

Aislin was born in the UK but moved to Ukraine in 2018 after meeting his girlfriend, Diane Okovyta, The Nottingham Post reported.

Shortly after, he enlisted in the Ukrainian army and was deployed after Russia's invasion of the country on February 24.

He previously fought ISIS alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a US-backed militia in Syria, Nottingham Post reported.