Two US military veterans who disappeared three months ago while fighting Russia with Ukrainian forces were among 10 prisoners, including five Britons, released by Russian-backed separatists as part of a prisoner exchange mediated by Saudi Arabia, officials said on Wednesday.
Alex Drueke, 40, and Andy Huynh, 27, went missing in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border on June 9. They had traveled to Ukraine on their own and became friends because the two men are from Alabama.
Their families announced their release in a joint statement from Dianna Shaw, an aunt of Drueke.
Photo: AFP PHOTO / SECURITY SERVICE OF UKRAINE
“They are safely in the custody of the US embassy in Saudi Arabia, and after medical checks and debriefing they will return to the states,” the statement said.
Shaw said the two men have spoken with relatives and are in “pretty good shape,” citing an official at the embassy.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan welcomed the releases and thanked the governments of Ukraine and Saudi Arabia for their work to secure the detainees’ freedom.
“We look forward to our citizens being reunited with their families,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Saudi Arabian embassy released a statement saying it helped secure the release of 10 prisoners from Morocco, the US, the UK, Sweden and Croatia.
Shaw confirmed that Drueke and Huynh were part of the group.
The UK said five British nationals had been released, and British lawmaker Robert Jenrick said one of them was Aiden Aslin, 28, who had been sentenced to death after he was captured in eastern Ukraine.
“Aiden’s return brings to an end months of agonising uncertainty for Aiden’s loving family in Newark who suffered every day of Aiden’s sham trial, but never lost hope. As they are united as a family once more, they can finally be at peace,” Jenrick wrote on Twitter.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss heralded the news on social media.
“Hugely welcome news that five British nationals held by Russian-backed proxies in eastern Ukraine are being safely returned, ending months of uncertainty and suffering for them and their families,” she wrote on Twitter.
Russian state TV previously said Drueke and Huynh were held by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
The US and other democracies do not recognize the sovereignty of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic,” and Washington has no diplomatic relations with it, making it necessary for others to lead efforts to get the men released.
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