Two U.S. citizens missing, feared captured, in eastern Ukraine -families
By Jake Cordell
(Reuters) – Two U.S. residents who traveled to Ukraine as volunteer fighters towards Russian forces have been lacking for per week and are feared captured, relations stated on Wednesday.
Alexander Drueke, 39, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Huynh, 27, of Hartselle, Alabama, have been final in touch with their households on June 8 and didn’t return from a mission across the Kharkiv area of jap Ukraine.
Experiences that the 2 males have been taken prisoners of struggle by Russia are unconfirmed, the households and a U.S. State Division spokesperson stated.
“What we all know formally at this level from the State Division is that Andy and Alex are lacking,” Pleasure Black, Andy’s fiancee, stated by cellphone.
“We should not have affirmation for something past that. Clearly the longer the search goes the extra we begin to take into account different eventualities,” she added.
Russia’s protection ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
If the pair have been captured, they might be the primary confirmed U.S. residents to have been taken as prisoners of struggle within the battle that started on Feb. 24 with Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering an invasion of its neighbor.
White Home nationwide safety spokesperson John Kirby stated that if the studies are true, the USA “will do all the pieces we are able to” to get them again.
Final week, two British residents and a Moroccan have been sentenced to loss of life by a separatist courtroom within the unrecognized Russian-speaking Donetsk Individuals’s Republic after being caught combating for Ukraine.
Lois Drueke, Alexander’s mom, stated she had been in touch with the U.S. Embassy for Ukraine, positioned in Poland, who have been trying to find the pair.
Each males had instructed their households on June 8 they might be going offline for a couple of days, however didn’t present particulars, for worry of their communications being intercepted.
Drueke served two excursions in Iraq, the final as a lead gunner in Baghdad in 2008-09, his mom stated. Huynh is a former U.S. marine who left the service in 2018, his fiancee stated.
They stated the boys didn’t know one another earlier than assembly in Ukraine, however each felt compelled to assist the federal government after seeing photos of civilian casualties as Russia retreated from cities exterior Kyiv in late March.
“When Andy noticed this footage popping out of Ukraine he stated he could not sleep, could not eat, was simply consumed by the horror that these harmless civilians have been going by,” stated Black.
Russia denies attacking civilians and has accused Western residents of appearing as “mercenaries”, saying Western assist for Kyiv is dragging out the battle and resulting in extra casualties.
“As a mom after all I did not need my baby in hurt’s method,” Lois Drueke stated. “However I knew that it was actually necessary to Alex, he needed a function to his life and he felt that this was good and noble.”
(Reporting by Jake Cordell in LONDON; modifying by David Ljunggren and Grant McCool)
