When Shaun Pinner left the Royal Anglian Regiment, after 9 years as a soldier, he had no intention of ever returning to military life.

Two decades later he was fighting in Ukraine as one of the country’s marines, besieged in the city of Mariupol as it was battered and starved by Russian forces.

When he was captured Shaun was beaten, tortured and eventually sentenced to death by firing squad. Yet he is now a free man, and living in Ukraine.

He tells Kate Gerbeau the incredible story of how he ended up there (via waste management and volunteering in Syria), why he was never a ‘war tourist’, and the surreal moment when he met his unlikely saviour on a luxury jet.