Former Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, is understood to helped negotiate the release of one of the five prisoners of war, who ‘feared the worst’ after being captured by Russian forces in Ukraine

Roman Abramovich

One of the British men detained by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has revealed that Roman Abramovich helped negotiate their release.

The five British men boarded a BA flight from King Khalid International Airport, Saudi shortly at 12.35am on Thursday on their way to Heathrow to be questioned by UK government officials before being allowed to meet their families. They had been released by their Russian captors on Wednesday morning.

One passenger on the flight, engineer Alec Pettet, said he spoke to the men after hearing one of them had been shot while in Ukraine.

Mr Pettet said the five Britons were seated together and looked exhausted following their ordeal but remained in good spirits and were happy to chat with other passengers.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/roman-abramovich-negotiated-release-brit-28054749