A former care worker from Newark has said he is still alive as he fights alongside Ukrainian forces in the besieged city of Mariupol. Aiden Aslin, 28, moved to the eastern European country after meeting his fiancée in 2018 and became a Marine in the Ukraine military.
Since Russian president Vladamir Putin ordered the invasion of the country, Aiden has been helping with the attempt to hold back Russian forces. On March 22, he posted a video update on social media. Dressed in military gear, he said: "We still control the city. Ukrainians are fighting day and night. The will is tremendously strong and they are not going to be submitted by Russian imperialism.
"We were pushed back from our defensive front lines on the Donbass sector. Gradually day by day we were pushed back to Mariupol and since we’ve come to Mariupol we are on the outskirts defending it, just on the very outer districts. Russian forces have continued to target the civilian areas where we are not located. I know this first hand because I’ve watched it.
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"I’ve watched multiple grad vehicles launch their rockets into the civilian areas behind us and this is the Russian military so if they’re as professional as they say they are then they know who they are targeting. You saw in the news the Mariupol theatre where people were hiding where they thought it was safe refuge. That was targeted by an air strike. That entire building is now levelled."
Aiden also called on the west to do more to help the Ukrainian people. "I don’t know how much people care about what I say but if there are Americans or British that ******* care about the **** that is going on here then pressure your politicians to do whatever else they can do because the air strikes are the biggest problem at the moment. Not because they are targeting us (the army), it’s because they are targeting civilians indiscriminately so I don’t know what else to say. Hopefully, you’ll see another video from me in the future."
Aiden, who has some experience in security work from his time in Nottinghamshire, tried to join the fight against the Islamic State in Syria in 2015. He was arrested on suspicion of terror offences when he returned to the UK but was never charged.
