Shaun Pinner is a former soldier of the British Army who joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a contracted fighter in 2018 and fought during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

During the siege of Mariupol, he was captured and sentenced to death in a show trial by the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed statelet Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), but was freed in September 2022 in a prisoner exchange.

In December 2022 he was awarded the state ‘Order of Courage, 3rd Degree’ in a decree by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for “selfless acts in the defence and sovereignty of Ukraine”.

[citation needed] The appeal was to be reviewed within a two-week period; if rejected, Pinner would, according to his lawyer, request to be pardoned by the head of the DPR.

[11] A day later the European Court of Human Rights told Russia to ensure that the death penalty is not carried out on Pinner and fellow prisoner Aiden Aslin.