Newark's Conservative MP Robert Jenrick has expressed concern about the plight of Aiden Aslin after he was captured in Ukraine and then interviewed on YouTube by filmmaker Graham Philips, who is believed to be from Nottingham. Mr Jenrick was highlighting Aiden's situation during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, April 20. Mr Aslin moved to Ukraine in 2018 where he met his girlfriend before joining the marines.
"My constituent Aiden Aslin has served in the Ukrainian armed forces for four years. Last week he was captured by the Russian army in Mariupol," Mr Jenrick says.
"Yesterday a video emerged of my constituent handcuffed, physically injured and being interviewed under duress for propaganda purposes. Would my Right Honourable friend agree that this is a flagrant breach of the Geneva Convention, that treating any prisoner of war in this manner is illegal and the interviewer Graham Philips is in danger of prosecution for war crimes and that any online platform, such as YouTube, which hosts propaganda videos of this kind should take them down immediately.
Responding to Mr Jenrick, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "I think everybody will want to urge the Russian state to treat his constituent humanely and compassionately because in my view, although we do not encourage people to, in fact we actively dissuade people from going to that theatre of conflict, I understand he had been serving in the Ukrainian forces for some time and his situation was very different from that of a mercenary.
"I hope that he is treated with care and compassion and I thoroughly echo the sentiments that my Right Honourable friend expresses about those who broadcast propaganda messages."
