Exclusive: US fighters 'captured' by Russian forces in Ukraine
Robert Drueke and Andy Huynh are both veterans of the US military who travelled to the front line to help in the war effort
Two former US servicemen have been captured during fighting with Russian forces in Ukraine, The Telegraph has been told.
The pair were taken prisoner during a fierce battle outside the north-east city of Kharkiv last week, according to comrades who were fighting alongside them.
Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, had been serving as volunteers with a regular Ukrainian army unit. They are believed to be the first US servicemen to end up as Russian prisoners of war.
They join a growing number of Western military volunteers captured by Russian forces, including at least two Britons.
Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner have already been told they face the death penalty as "mercenaries".
The capture of the two Americans will be diplomatically sensitive as the Kremlin may seek to use it as proof that America is becoming directly involved in the war. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is likely to demand significant concessions to release them.
A comrade of the two men, who asked not to be named, told The Telegraph said that they had been captured after running into a much larger Russian force during a battle last Thursday.
"We were out on a mission and the whole thing went absolutely crazy, with bad intel," he said. "We were told the town was clear when it turned out the Russians were already assaulting it.
"They came down the road with two T72 tanks and multiple BMP3s (armoured fighting vehicles) and about 100 infantry. The only thing that was there was our 10-man squad."
The squad set up defensive positions, during which time Mr Drueke and Mr Huynh fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Russian vehicle, destroying it.
That, however, drew the attention of one of the tanks, which fired a shot in their direction but which is thought to have missed.
Shortly afterward, the tank was crippled by an anti-tank mine that the Ukrainian squad had left in the road. The two Americans then vanished in the fog of battle, and are thought to have been captured by the Russian infantry soldiers.
"We suspect that they were knocked unconscious by either the anti-tank mine, or by the tank shooting at them, because later search missions found not sign of them, nothing," their comrade said.
"Afterwards we sent drones up and had a Ukrainian search team on the ground but we found nothing: if they had been hit by the tank shell there would have been remains of their bodies or equipment at the scene."
He said his suspicions were confirmed later that night when a message appeared on a Russian Telegram channel claiming that two American servicemen had been taken PoW near Kharkiv.
"It is too much of a coincidence for that to have happened otherwise – we are the only Americans fighting in this area."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/15/exclusive-first-two-us-fighters-captured-russian-forces-battle/