Saadoun’s friends and family demanded his release, telling the Guardian he was an active Marine and not a mercenary, according to Russian media and pro-Russian officials in eastern Ukraine who announced the sentence. The 21-year-old is a former aeronautics student who really liked the underground techno scene in Kiev. He moved to Ukraine in 2019 to study engineering, but joined the army to fight “injustice”, developing in Mariupol a few months before the Russian invasion. Friends and family in Ukraine and Morocco gather under the #SaveBrahim banner to raise awareness of the soldier whose fate is linked to that of two Britons, 28-year-old Aiden Aslin of Newark and 48-year-old Shaun Pinner of Watford. , was also sentenced to death by the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk. “Basically, everyone who knew Brahim, everyone loved him,” said Dasha Oleinik, a friend who has known Sandun for several years and kept in touch with him during his mission. “Everyone who knows him is cracked.” Dmytro Khrabtsov, another friend, said he met Saadoun at a party in 2019 and they had spent half the night discussing aerospace engineering. The Moroccan had come to the Kiev Polytechnic because the Ukrainian education was “very good for the price you pay”. Saadoun and his friend Dmytro Khrabtsov (right). Photo: Dmytro Khrabtsov / PA Media He eventually joined the armed forces, Khrabtsov said, because he “had a deep sense that injustice was being done to Ukraine.” According to Khrabtsov, Pinner had helped Saadoun join the armed forces via Facebook. Saadoun appeared alongside Pinner and Aslin in a demonstration trial this week, which ended with a Russian proxy sentencing the three men to death. While Russia may seek to exchange them with its own soldiers convicted of war crimes, the threat of an execution squad or long-term imprisonment has terrified his friends and family in both Ukraine and Morocco. Two friends and a relative of Saadoun confirmed to the Guardian that he was a member of the Ukrainian Marines and had not served as a mercenary, as claimed by Russian officials and their proxies. A close friend, Muiz Avghonzoda, told German television network DW that he had “all the copies of his documents, all those contracts he had signed with the Ukrainian armed forces.” He had called Saadoun “a victim of the DPR [the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic] playing games, victim of Russia, victim of this war “. Saadoun’s friends were also concerned as media attention focused on the fate of several Britons in eastern Ukraine, citing the Moroccan in particular. They say the explosion of support he received from his arrest showed how he integrated into Ukrainian society. He is a “very good man,” Khrabtsov said. “You can see from the way people in Ukraine are reacting to his imprisonment that he has touched many lives in a positive way.” His friends say he had little job prospects and wanted to gain military experience by going where he felt needed. “You could see he would never work in an office. he had the mentality of an adventurer, a defender. He was very far-sighted, he had a strong sense of justice. “ Saadoun’s friends and family found out he had been arrested in a hostage interview with Alexander Sladkov, a Russian state television official. “I can see at times that he tries to choose his words wisely when he speaks in these videos,” Oleynik said. “I am sure he is being held in very bad conditions. That’s what it looks like, but we do not know the details. “ Since then, he has not been given the opportunity to communicate with his family or friends. “They have not spoken,” Oleynik said. “It is incredibly difficult for us and of course for his family.” Saadoun had called Oleynik regularly even after joining the army, where he had served as a driver before being deployed to Mariupol in November. On the first day of the war, as helicopters were flying to Kyiv, Saadoun called Oleynik and told her to run to a bomb shelter as soon as possible. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST “The day the war started, he was in a hotspot and he called me to tell me that he saw helicopters moving towards Kyiv,” he said. “He called me to say, ‘I see these helicopters, please hide in the bomb shelter…’ It was obvious that he did not have much time and that he was calling from a random number, but he still needed time to call. ” He said he hoped attention to his fate could encourage Western governments to find a way to bring him home. “We are really suffering because we have no contact with him,” Oleynik said. “I can see how tired and exhausted he is. “I wish he knew how much support he really has; how many people care, how many write about it, how many publish about it; so he has a reason to hold on, to know that he is not alone.”
