THE family of a hero Brit facing a firing squad in Ukraine want a prisoner swap to save his life.
Shaun Pinner, 46, and fellow Briton Aiden Aslin, 28, got the death sentence at a kangaroo court in Russian-controlled Donetsk.
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The ex-Royal Anglian soldier’s family say Russia claimed they were foreign mercenaries to deny them PoW rights, including an independent lawyer, before the “illegal show trial”.
In a statement, they said: “Our whole family is devastated.
“We sincerely hope all parties will co-operate urgently to ensure the safe release or exchange of Shaun.
“Our family including his son and Ukrainian wife, love and miss him.”
Shaun of Watford, and Aiden, of Newark, Notts, were serving with Ukraine’s marines.
They surrendered in the besieged port city Mariupol in April after running out of ammunition.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss condemned their sentencing.
She said: “It is a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy . . . they are prisoners of war”.
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Downing Street said it was “deeply concerned”.
Russia wants to swap them for President Vladimir Putin’s pal Viktor Medvedchuk who was arrested by Ukraine’s secret service.
Shaun and Aiden — who were sentenced with Moroccan Sadun Brahim, 21 — have a month to appeal.
Ex goalie eyes hell in assault
by Jerome Starkey
A FORMER Ukrainian footie star wounded in Russia’s Donbas bombardment said he thought his “eyes would explode” in a deadly artillery blitz.
Ex-Dynamo Kyiv goalie Svyatoslav Syrota was hurt as a Russian shell exploded by his bunker as Putin’s invaders captured Popasna.
Syrota, 51, said all five members of his mortar team were wounded in the three-day onslaught.
Speaking outside hospital, he said: “All I remember is the flash, I don’t remember the sound.”
He’d suffered a brain injury and kept on falling over.
He added: “I’d walk a few steps and collapse. It felt like my eyes would blow out of my head.”
Syrota escaped by clinging to an armoured vehicle’s roof.
He said: “It was harder than being SpiderMan. It’s only because of my sport I am still here.”
Help those fleeing conflict with The Sun’s Ukraine Fund
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