Watford man Shaun Pinner imprisoned in Ukraine 'never lost hope'

Shaun Pinner, pictured outside the Ukrainian embassy, now lives in Ukraine

A British man once held by Russian-backed forces has being recalling his torture and the "gallows humour" of his captivity in eastern Ukraine.

Shaun Pinner, from Watford, was freed last year and has published a book about his experiences.

Mr Pinner said fighting with the Ukrainian Marines, in his adopted hometown of Mariupol, was "most intense".

"60% of my wedding picture - the guys are either dead or captured," he said.

When Russian forces invaded Ukraine last year, Mr Pinner was serving the last six months of a three-year contract with Ukrainian forces.

The 49-year-old, who had previously served with the British Army, had moved to Ukraine in 2018, where he met his wife in Mariupol- the sea port on the Sea of Azov.

He was captured there in April 2022, spending five months imprisoned, before being released along with five other Britons the following September.

In that time, he said he was given electric shocks, tasered, stabbed in the leg and pistol-whipped.

Before he was freed he was told he had been sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine.

Shaun Pinner was captured after seven weeks defending Mariupol

To see him through, Mr Pinner said he relied on "conduct after capture training" he had been given during the nine years he spent in the British military.

"I had to draw on that experience from 30 years ago, I never lost hope," he said.

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Other things that helped were his knowledge of the Russian language and "gallows humour".

"I don't know how I would've done on my own, but I was with good guys that picked each other up with that sort of humour," he explained.

Shaun Pinner (centre) said the "gallows humour" of the fellow captives John Harding and Aiden Aslin helped him with the experience

Mr Pinner said he believed Ukrainian forces had an advantage fighting in their own country and the outcome of the conflict was still hard to predict.

Looking ahead to winter, he said "They're certainly going to be fighting better in Ukraine, on their own doorstop, as Russian morale is really low.

"You can't expect anything; you can't predict anything; it's just going to go its course."

His book, called Live Fight Survive, has been published this week by Penguin.