Aiden Aslin has thanked business magnate Elon Musk for giving him the chance to call his family moments before being captured by Russian soldiers. The soldier, who is originally from Newark, Nottinghamshire, was already living in Ukraine and joined the army in a joint effort to defend the nation against Vladimir Putin's invasion.
In April, his mum, Ang Wood, recalled the moment Aiden called her to say he will surrender. "I got a phone call from him saying 'I think we are surrendering, we have no ammunition, no food, we have no water'", the 50-year-old recalled. "And then last Tuesday, early hours, I got to speak to Aiden again. It was a very short message that he was surrendering."
Mr Aslin had been fighting with his unit in the besieged south eastern city of Mariupol. He has finally returned home after being sentenced to death in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic [DPT] for "mercenary activities and committing actions aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order of the DPR."
READ MORE: Nottinghamshire's Aiden Aslin records message on plane home after release from Russian forces
Mr Aslin has now taken back control of his Twitter account and opened up about the horrors he and others endured since their capture in Mariupol on April 12.
before I surrendered, I made this video I was so scared at this moment but the fact I was able to get this out truly is down to @elonmusk & I want to take a moment to thank you because of your starlink satellite I could inform the world & managed to call my family one last time pic.twitter.com/f4Zxv2tzLO
— COSSACKGUNDI (@cossackgundi)
On Sunday evening (September 25), Aiden took to social media to express his gratitude to the world's richest man Elon Musk whose satellite internet constellation he used to contact loved ones. He captioned a video of himself in an abandoned, war-torn warehouse in which he opens by saying: "If you're watching this it means that we've surrendered."
Aiden wrote on Sunday: "Before I surrendered, I made this video I was so scared at this moment but the fact I was able to get this out truly is down to @elonmusk & I want to take a moment to thank you because of your starlink satellite I could inform the world & managed to call my family one last time."
In the video, Aiden explained that he had little choice but to hand himself over as he and fellow fighters had run out of food, water and ammunition while under heavy shelling, artillery and airstrikes. He also shared a series of snaps taken of the same ashen building of smashed and burnt out vehicles.
In the short video, in which he documented the unbearable moments before he surrended, he looked at the camera and said: "We did not have any other choice than to surrender. Hopefully this war finishes, but I guess we will see what will happen."
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