Former Newark soldier and prisoner of war Aiden Aslin recounts the last days in Mariupol before his surrender in the Ukraine-Russia conflict

In the first in a series of interviews with the Advertiser, former soldier and prisoner of war Aiden Aslin recounts his experiences in the Ukraine conflict.

On entering the strategically-important port city of Mariupol it was relatively quiet, a still that hid from its defenders the horrors and deprivations that would follow.

Newark soldier Aiden Aslin was sent there having re-enlisted in the Ukraine armed forces with his unit, the 36th Marine Brigade, on the threat of Russian invasion.

Their role was to help defend the city, and its civilian population, from Russian enslavement and to buy time for the Ukrainian military, and the West, to rally.

“When we were encircled, it became a different story, one of hardship for the residents and for us,” said Aiden.

“There was indiscriminate shooting from the Russian side against civilians and re-supply lines were cut. We were on our own. After a month, the food started to run out.

“We were down to one chocolate bar a day. The cigarettes were finished. Towards the beginning of April we practically ran out of food but had plenty of water.”

“Russia slowly pushed in on us.”

The 36th Marine Brigade was in constant action from February 28 to April 12 and the siege of Mariupol became a symbol of Ukraine’s defiance, succeeding in stalling the Russian advance and soaking up much more in lives and material than Vladimir Putin could ever have considered.

Aid convoys couldn’t get through, Russia controlled the skies, the city was under constant air strikes, artillery bombardment and sniper fire and the city was being levelled. There was no electricity and Aiden’s contact with his family was sporadic.

“An air strike hit the battalion’s ammo dump and, with that, our capability was largely destroyed,” said Aiden.

Hunkering down in the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works against constant shelling, Aiden said the 36th realised the game was up.

“We were cornered and knew we must be either killed or captured. With their air power, and the shelling we were being overwhelmed. There were bodies everywhere that couldn’t be retrieved. Nobody had anything left. We soldierswere exhausted,” he said.

“We knew what we had ach-ieved. We knew Russia had had to divert a lot of resources to take us on and that in turn helped Ukraine gain time to co-ordinate their defence.

“The day before we were ord-ered to surrender, the Russians were shelling us hard. There were three tanks shooting at our position and there were air strikes.

“In our bunker there were 600 to 700 people because the wounded from the hospital down the road and had been evacuated to us.

“Our steelworks was cut off. 140km was the distance between us and Ukrainian lines. At 12pm that day our commander said we had three choices, to try to break out in a convoy, walk out, or to surrender with the bulk of the battalion and the brigade.“My experiences from Syria taught me when ISIS had tried driving out through the lines it had been suicide, and I didn’t believe we could make 142km on foot.

“A thousand of us made the same decision to surrender, knowing that what could happen to us, but having no means of defending ourselves any more.I figured I’d take my chances and surrender with my unit. I figured that might be better than being captured or shot trying to run.

“My commander contacted the Russians over the radio and asked for terms of surrender. Six-hundred of us from my unit disarmed ourselves and went out together in our respective units. I had managed to use Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite for a proof of life video and to call home, and I will always be grateful for that invention.

“We walked unit-by-unit under a white flag and were sent to a filtration point where we boarded buses. I was scared. I had seen how foreigners fighting for ISIS were treated in Syria. I knew I was going to be treated much worse than many.”

The fighting in Mariupol was not yet done, in the Azov steelworks, deep underground, fighters would continue to hold out before offering their own surrender after two months, three weeks and five days.

• Read of Aiden’s time in captivity, and his eventual against-the-odds’ release, in next week’s Advertiser.