Brit brutally tortured by Russians left with ‘muscles popping out’ and ‘inflated legs’

A British national has revealed the harrowing details of being tortured by the Russians after he was captured while fighting alongside Ukrainian troops.

As part of a prisoner swap in September, military veteran Shaun Pinner and four other prisoners were released from Russian detention.

And during this week’s Beth Rigby interviews, he opened up about the experience, which rendered him unable to walk. He also called for Ukraine to receive fighter jets from Britain.

READ MORE: Brit soldier fighting in Ukraine tells how he ‘pumped Russian full of lead’

Pinner, from Bedfordshire, explained that prior to his detainment, in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, he was serving with standard units in Mariupol, situated in Eastern Ukraine.

In a startling admission, the soldier opened up on receiving electric shocks, explaining: “You feel like your muscles are popping out of you, your body.

“And the next day, my legs inflated very badly. The blood was kind of capillaries were leaking blood from my legs.

“When I took my thermal off, I was just bleeding from my leg from the electric shock, and my legs had inflated, so I couldn’t walk.”

The prisoner of war revealed that one man cut off his clothing to see if he had any right-wing tattoos, before stabbing a blade into his leg.

“He just went ‘Oh’ and I was just bleeding everywhere, all over my legs.

“I was screaming… and then I had 200 volts go through me on the chair, control my leg, and I was literally standing up, and he electrocuted me in there. I didn’t really ask any questions.”

With the war in Ukraine now over a year old, the war hero reflected on what he has witnessed.

Mr Pinner told Rigby: “The bombing goes all the way back from the front lines to Mariupol.

“I saw a school, with the kids’ coats hanging up… where they’ve been evacuated and put in a cellar, and they just hit the school, didn’t care about it.

“They were hitting any government building they could target.”

The soldier still remembers the moment he realised the Russians had crossed over the border.

He said: “Your adrenaline is going. You’re nervous, you’re scared. You know people that say they aren’t scared. I was petrified. You know, it’s Russia.”

He insisted that his country provided Ukraine with fighter jets, claiming: “They need continued support. If you ask the foreign fighters over there, they just want to support.”

Despite confessing that it’s difficult to train people in this field, he says: “That’s not my part, I just want fighter jets.”

And he isn’t interested in any peace talks.

“One of the things I say to people is, how much of America or Norway or Britain would you be willing to lose to talk peace?

“I doubt America would give up an inch, especially Britain wouldn’t. So, you know, Ukraine is exactly the same.

“If we give an inch now, they will come back in three years, five years, push a bit more – like they’ve done with Crimea.”

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