Details have become known regarding the identities of two US citizens who were allegedly captured during the hostilities in the Donbass. As previously reported, the former American military, who volunteered to come to Ukraine to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, were captured by the Russian military last week in the Kharkiv direction. “Bama and Hayt were captured,” their unit reported on the social network.
The Telegraph informsthat she became aware of the details regarding the personalities of the captured Americans. The newspaper claims that they are 39-year-old Robert Druke and 27-year-old Andy Hyun. “It is believed that these are the first American volunteers taken prisoner by the Russians,” the publication says.
The British edition recalls that earlier in the Donbass a trial was held once morest two British volunteers in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as once morest a captured Moroccan, and that Aiden Eslin and Sean Pinner were sentenced to death as “mercenaries”. In this regard, The Telegraph believes that the capture of the Americans will also have diplomatic weight for the Kremlin’s positions in terms of the possibility of their exchange on favorable terms.
The journalists managed to get a comment from a colleague of the captured Americans, who, on condition of anonymity, said that his comrades in a volunteer military detachment were captured last Thursday, when foreigners “ran into” superior forces of the RF Armed Forces.
“We were told that the city was clean, but then it turned out that there were Russians there. They literally came out to meet two T-72 tanks, several infantry fighting vehicles, only 100 fighters. And only our group of 10 people was once morest them,” the source of the publication said .
He claims that the detachment did not retreat, but took up a defensive position and Dryuke and Hyun began to fire from an anti-tank grenade launcher. The colleague also claims that they allegedly managed to knock out some of the Russian equipment, and also that the Russian tank allegedly immediately blew up on a mine left by the Ukrainians, and then “two Americans disappeared in the smoke of the battle.”
The source said that later his detachment sent drones to the area, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces sent a search party, but no one found any bodies or any remains, in connection with which a working version of the capture was immediately born. When Russian Telegram channels began to spread messages regarding “captured American mercenaries”, all doubts disappeared, he added: “We are the only Americans in the area.”
It is known that Dryuke is from Alabama, served in Iraq and was wounded there, according to his mother. The woman said that following leaving the military, her son tried to find a job, but suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. “The US Embassy assured me they were doing everything they might to find him,” the ex-military’s mother told reporters. “I’m trying my best to hold on…”
Hyun was born in California but also lived in Alabama, formerly in the US Navy. His fiancee told reporters that he had been eager to sign up for the Ukrainian Armed Forces since February 24. The girl also said that the groom explained his motives with fears for the fate of 18-year-old Ukrainian soldiers who did not have the combat experience that he had.
