I’m an ex-British soldier who fought in Ukraine

A former British Army soldier captured while fighting with Ukrainian Marines has hit out at “soundbites” after Sir Keir Starmer said he was prepared to deploy UK troops as part of a peacekeeping force.

Shaun Pinner, 51, was sentenced to death and tortured during five months as a prisoner of war after being seized by Russian-backed forces in April 2022 and held in occupied Donetsk.

Serving with the Ukrainian military, he fought for seven weeks after Russia invaded, first in frontline trenches before house-to-house fighting in the besieged city of Mariupol.

The Prime Minister said the UK and Europe faces a “generational challenge” and “need to do more” after he revealed he would put a British peacekeeping force into Ukraine if an agreement to end the conflict with Russia was reached.

But Pinner, a former Royal Anglian Regiment soldier, believes Nato troops should have been deployed to Ukraine already to counter the threat from Russia, in a conflict he described as “like World War Two on steroids.”

He told The i Paper: “I’m fed up with the soundbites. I’m fed up with Macron soundbites. I’m fed up with British soundbites.

“Until we see some definitive action I just take these like water off of a duck’s back at the moment.

“I just want to see some action, rather than just more talk. Boots on the ground. We have been hearing this for years.”

Troops should have been deployed down to the Dnipro River 18 months ago, he believes, accusing Europe of being “so slow to act it’s beggars belief.”

He added: “I think we should have been doing this once we realised North Korea and Iran were in Russia’s coalition in invading Ukraine.”

Pinner, who now lives in the city of Dnipro, three hours from the frontline, added USAid being slashed had seen his wife and other humanitarian workers furloughed or made redundant.

Washington’s cuts, brought in after Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) dismantled the agency, were fraying the “stitching” that holds Ukraine’s wartime fabric together, he said.

“It’s just another kick in the nuts for Ukraine,” said Pinner, who spent five years with the Ukrainian armed forces after a nine-year stint in the British Army.

“Now you’ve got Trump wanting to make deals with Putin, and nobody knows how that’s going to go, and he’s isolating Europe. But Europe’s just as bad and hasn’t risen to the situation.”

Pinner, from Watford, Hertfordshire, was released in September, 2022, along with fellow British nationals Aiden Aslin, Andrew Hill and John Harding, who also served with the Ukrainian military, and aid worker Dylan Healy.

Now working for Prevail, a demining non-profit organisation, he must wear glasses for the rest of his life after being injured when Russian forces exploded a train bomb containing 800kg of explosives into the Ukrainian’ troops position at Ilich Steelworks in Mariupol before he was forced to surrender.

He now holds talks with Nato military troops and Sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) training programmes about his experiences on the frontline and captivity.

Back in the UK briefly, he will speak at a rally in London’s Trafalgar Square next Monday on 24 February – the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

But while he feels Western troops should have been committed to Ukraine already, he doubts whether the British Army has “the teeth” for a full peacekeeping role on its own.

“I’ve just watched a half a million army fight half a million army, and now they’re recruiting again. We wouldn’t last a month,” he said.

“I think it’s really important for British troops to get in and get some experience at this, the drone advancements alone have come on in two years.

“Russia’s now building its ballistic missiles. You’re not fighting in a green zone or a safe patrol harbor anymore. This isn’t Afghan, Iraq – it’s espionage, cyberspace, satellites.”

Describing the war with Russia as a battle between “good versus evil”, he said serving members of the military he knows stationed in countries like Poland were “itching” to get involved.

“If Putin is successful in Ukraine, then really Russia, Iran and North Korea will be part of a big coalition, who will now be six hours from Germany,” Mr Pinner said.

“Russia will forcibly conscript Ukrainian fighting age males, no doubt. They’re already doing it in the occupied territories. That will double Europe’s problem if he takes Ukraine.

“The Kremlin will also gain access to all Ukrainian battlefield innovations, which you’ve seen – the sea babies (multi-purpose unmanned surface vehicles), the drones, ballistic missiles, and all the rocket technology. 

“And he’ll get all access to those minerals. And most importantly, he will maneuver his ballistic and nuclear arsenal closer to places like London, Berlin, Paris, with less time to react to missile launches.

“It’s a real security risk for Europe, because he won’t stop.”