A Russian state TV channel on Friday aired videos on social media of two Americans who went missing last week while fighting alongside the Ukrainian army, with the broadcaster saying they had been captured by Russian forces.
US President Joe Biden earlier in the day said that he did not know the whereabouts of Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, two US military veterans whose relatives lost contact with them.
The missing Americans — including a third identified as a former US Marines Corps captain — are believed to be part of an unknown number of mostly military veterans who have joined other foreigners to volunteer alongside Ukrainian troops.
Photo: AP
Russian journalist Roman Kosarev — who works with RT — posted a video on messaging platform Telegram of Drueke speaking facing the camera.
“Mom, I just want to let you know that I’m alive and I hope to be back home as soon as I can be,” said Drueke, who was seated in what appeared to be an office and dressed in military fatigues.
“Love Diesel for me, love you,” he said, concluding his brief video with a quick wink.
Photo: AP
Reports in the US said that Diesel was Drueke’s dog.
RT’s official Telegram channel also posted an interview with Huynh in which he said that the duo had been “engaged in combat with Russian troops” near Ukraine’s flashpoint Kharkiv area.
After the pair retreated and hid for hours, they surrendered themselves to Russian troops, Huynh said.
The pair were also filmed in separate RT videos — directly facing a camera angled from above — saying: “I’m against the war” in poor Russian.
The circumstances under which the two men were speaking were not fully clear, nor who was holding them.
A US Department of State spokesperson yesterday confirmed that US authorities had seen the photographs and videos of the two US citizens “reportedly captured by Russia’s military forces in Ukraine.”
“We are closely monitoring the situation and our hearts go out to their families during this difficult time,” the spokesperson told reporters.
Drueke’s mother, Lois, had told CNN on Thursday that her son went to Ukraine after discussing it with her for about a month.
“I want everyone to know ... we don’t want one to come home without the other. They were best buddies there and we want everybody to remember it’s not just one person there,” she said.
Huynh’s fiance, Joy Black, said in the same interview that she last heard from him on Wednesday last week.
“He told me he loved me very much and that he would be unavailable for two, three days... He was trying not to worry me,” Black said, in tears.
“I just want to see him back safely,” she said.
During a White House briefing on Friday, Biden urged US citizens not to go to Ukraine.
“Americans should not be going to Ukraine now,” Biden said.
“I’ll say it again: Americans should not be going to Ukraine,” he added.
The Russian proxy authorities in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a Moscow-controlled swath of eastern Ukraine, have sentenced to death two British men and a Moroccan captured earlier in fighting.
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