A second British soldier fighting the Ukrainian army was shown on Russian television after being captured in the besieged city of Mariupol.
Sean Piner said he was fighting alongside the Ukrainian Marines when Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded nearly eight weeks ago.
The 48-year-old former British soldier looks tired and bruised in a short propaganda video broadcast by Russian media on Saturday night.
He said: “Hello, I’m Sean Piner, I’m a UK citizen. I was captured in Mariupol. I am part of the 36th Brigade First Battalion Ukrainian Marines.
“I fought in Mariupol for five to six weeks, and now I am in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
It is not known when the video was shot or what led to the capture of Piner. He was fighting with his friend Aiden Aslin, 28, from Nottinghamshire, who is believed to have surrendered to the Russian military last week after his battalion ran out of ammunition.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Community is in contact with Aslin’s family to support them. However, the ability of the United Kingdom to provide consular assistance or information to British citizens in Ukraine is extremely limited due to the war.
It is believed that Piner, a native of Bedfordshire, moved to Ukraine four years ago and lived with his wife in Donbass. The former Royal English Regiment soldier said in January that he was based in trenches 10 miles outside Mariupol.
He told the Mail on Sunday in January: “I am here to protect my family and my adopted city. Russia started this war. It is funded by Russia and run by Russia, but we will fight them, make no mistake.
Piner also spoke of his fear of capture: “I’m afraid of my life. The Russians will treat us differently if they catch us because we are British. It always occurs to me that I will be caught. “
He said the battle in the trenches was “like hell”, with snipers frighteningly close. He added: “The separatists are now using drones to drop bombs and mortars – along with automatic grenade launchers and [shoulder-fired] RPG missiles. Snipers are always present and there is fire from small arms almost every day.
“Ukrainian forces react if we consider that our lives are in danger, while the separatists seem to shoot whenever they want.
“Sometimes it’s very scary, no matter how used you are. Sometimes you hear it [explosions] Start down the contact line, then it pulsates through your position. That’s why you have time to dive into the cover and sometimes you can get a warning in advance. Snipers are less than 600 meters away.
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