Photos: Social Networks
Details of the identity of two US citizens who were probably captured during hostilities in the Donbas. As previously reported, the former US military, which volunteered for Ukraine to help Ukraine's armed forces, was captured by the Russian army toward Kharkov last week. “Bama and Hayt have been captured,” their social network unit announced.
The Telegraph reports that she learned the details of the identity of the captured Americans. The newspaper claims that it is 39-year-old Robert Druke and 27-year-old Andy Hyun. “It is assumed that these are the first American volunteers captured by the Russians,” the publication reads.
The British publication recalls that a trial against two British volunteers in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as a captured Moroccan, had previously taken place in Donbas, and that Aiden Eslin and Sean Pinner had been sentenced to death as “mercenaries”. In this regard, The Telegraph believes that the capture of the Americans will have diplomatic weight for the Kremlin's position in terms of the possibility of their exchange on favorable terms.
The journalists managed to obtain a comment from a colleague of captured Americans, who He said anonymously that his comrades-in-arms from the volunteer military unit had been captured last Thursday when the foreigners “ran into” the superiority of the Russian Armed Forces. Forces.
“We were told that the city was clean, but then it turned out that there were Russians. They came out literally opposite two T-72 tanks, several infantry fighting vehicles, only 100 fighters. And only our group of 10 people was against them,” he said.
He claims that the division did not retreat, but took a defensive position, and Dryuke and Hyun began firing anti-tank grenade launchers. A colleague also claims that they allegedly managed to eliminate part of Russian technology and also that the Russian tank allegedly immediately exploded on a mine left by the Ukrainians, and then “two Americans disappeared in the smoke of the battle.”
The source said that his unit later 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. As Russian telegram channels began to spread the word about “captured American mercenaries,” all doubts disappeared, adding: “We are the only Americans in the area.”
Dryuke, originally from Alabama, is known to have served in Iraq and was there, according to the mother, injured. The woman said that after leaving the army, her son tried to find a job, but suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. “The U.S. embassy has assured me that they are doing everything in their power to find him,” the ex-soldier's mother told reporters. His fiancée told reporters that he had wanted to enlist in the Ukrainian armed forces since February 24. The girl also said that the groom explained his motives by fears about the fate of 18-year-old Ukrainian soldiers who had no experience with military operations like him.