US State Dept issues first response on two Americans captured by Russian troops in Ukraine

As the invading Russian soldiers captured two former US military personnel fighting on behalf of the ‘International Legion’ of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, a US State Department official told reporters that they are "aware" two Americans have been captured by Moscow’s forces. A spokesperson for the department, however, declined to make further comments on the subject. 

Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, who served as a US Marine, and Alexander Drueke, a former US Army personnel who was deployed in Iraq, were volunteering with a unit of foreign fighters in the Ukrainian Army when they mysteriously disappeared. Drueke hails from Tuscaloosa, in Alabama, and had first enlisted with the US Army after 9/11, and was later deployed in Iraq as a staff sergeant. Huynh, born to Vietnamese parents, hailed from California and lived in Alabama's Tennessee Valley. He served four years in the US Marines but lacked combat experience. 

Russia’s military, in an update on the Telegram messaging app, said that the two American fighters, who got separated from their cohort and disappeared after destroying a Russian tank, were captured by its soldiers as prisoners of war. 

(Image: @Alexander J. Drueke/Facebook)

"Z group have scored some success in the Kharkiv destination for the last two days. We have taken hostage 10-20 Ukrainian soldiers and also today two American mercenaries," the telegram post by the Russian military read.

The duo became the first US servicemen to end up as Russian prisoners of war and have joined three Britons - Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Andrew Hill - who were sentenced to death by a court in a pro-Russian breakaway state of the Donetsk People's Republic. 

The capture of the ex-American military personnel is being deemed as a sensitive turn in course of the war as the Kremlin might use it as evidence that the US has become “directly involved” in the ongoing conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin may put challenging concessions on the table in exchange for their release to the US government. The two US fighters were captured less than 5 miles from Russia’s border in the village of Izbytske, 30 miles north-east of Kharkiv.

“We are aware of unconfirmed reports of two US citizens captured in Ukraine,” a US State Department spokesperson told reporters at a conference. “We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Ukrainian authorities,” the spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed.

US Secy Blinken's team refuses to divulge details citing ‘privacy’ grounds

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team declined to elaborate on the details of the response citing ‘privacy’ grounds. “Bad intel” reportedly led the ex-US Army personnel to believe that the area was secure while the Russian troops were already camouflaged in the region, assaulting the area. International Legion unit with the two American had set up defensive positions, laying an anti-tank mine in the road for the advancing Russian T72s. Drueke and Huynh were manning RPG7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher to counter Russian troops. 

"We were out on a mission and the whole thing went absolutely crazy, with bad intel. 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 [armored fighting vehicles] and about 100 infantry. The only thing that was there was our ten man squad," a soldier from the unit who did not disclose his identity for security purposes told Telegraph. While the scene was engulfed in smoke and thick fog, after it cleared, their American comrades, who joined the fight in April, went missing. 

"Everybody had taken cover waiting for one of the Russian tanks to hit the anti-tank mine, but Alex and Andy saw a BMP3 coming from another direction through the woods and realised that it would kill most of us. They opened fire and took it out with their first shot,” the soldiers from the unit, who did not provide their identity, narrated. 

One of the Russian T72 tanks fired in the direction of the two American fighters, and while the shell missed them, a blast enveloped the area in smoke. The two Americans were missing, and it was later found that they were taken prisoner by Russian infantry soldiers, the unit’s soldiers said. "It was all very chaotic, but we suspect that they were knocked unconscious by either the blast from the tank shooting at them or from the anti-tank mine blowing up, because later search missions found not a sign of them,” one of the soldiers explained. Ukraine’s Army sent drones for search and rescue operation and a team was dispatched on the ground but found “nothing.” 

US State Dept 'doing everything they can'

Drueke’s mother, who contacted the US government to secure her son's release, told the paper that the US Embassy assured her that they “are doing everything they can to find her son.” “They [US State Department] are searching for him alive, not dead,” she said. "I am doing my best not to fall apart, I am going to stay strong. I am very hopeful that they will keep him to exchange for Russian PoWs,” the captured American’s mother iterated. 

“We are not mercenaries, or part of some militia. We are serving under the command of the Ukrainian armed forces. I am speaking out on my missing comrades' behalf because I want it in the public domain that they are missing, so that the Russian high command is made aware too,” another soldier from the International Legion told the paper. 

While Russia’s military labels the captured foreign fighters as ‘mercenaries’ the US government denies that Americans were hired in Ukraine as mercenaries or recruited while still in the US.

Secretary of State Blinken had also earlier discouraged American citizens from joining Ukraine in the war, saying that it would risk American fighters to be treated as mercenaries if captured by Russian soldiers; and therefore they will not be protected by international rules for prisoners of war. As Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainian Embassy in the US notified that over 3,000 US citizens reached out to be enlisted in Ukraine’s Army.