First US fighters captured by Russian soldiers in Ukraine
Two American fighters have been taken as prisoners of war in Ukraine, the first since the conflict began. Robert Drueke and Andy Huynh were taken prisoner by Russian forces last week on the outskirts of Kharkiv. Drueke, 39, and Huynh, 27, are both from Alabama. It’s unclear if they were friends before they both traveled voluntarily to Ukraine earlier this year to assist Ukrainian forces as they continue to defend their country against Russian forces. One of the men’s comrades described losing sight of the pair in a battle last week as they defended Kharkiv. The pair were part of a ten-man squad defending Kharkiv last week when they were ambushed by Russian soldiers, according to one of their comrades. Drueke and Huynh disabled a Russian tank with a grenade but were lost in the fog of return fire. By the time it cleared, they had vanished. Drueke served in the US Army in Iraq whereas Huynh, a former Marine, has never been in active combat before. He rushed to Ukraine in April after watching the invasion from afar, saying before he left that he was ‘at peace’ with the knowledge he may die in the conflict. The State Department said on Tuesday it was ‘aware’ of reports of their capture but a spokesman declined to comment, citing privacy concerns. The White House is also ‘aware’ of the reports, a spokesman told DailyMail.com. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark A. Milley did not comment on the capture on Tuesday. ‘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,’ one of their comrades told The Daily Telegraph in an interview on Tuesday. ‘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. ‘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. Russian forces claimed that night on the app Telegram to have captured two American soldiers. Drueke’s mother in Alabama told the Telegraph she is in contact with the government and hopes they will secure her son’s release. ‘The US embassy have assured me that they are doing everything they can to find him and that they are searching for him alive, not dead. ‘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,’ she said. The conflict in Ukraine has now raged for over 100 days, with Russian forces now concentrating their offensive on the Donbas region. Experts believe the war is at a pivotal moment, with Russia advancing further on Ukraine and likely to take hold of the East. President Zelensky this week begged the West for more weapons to continue his ferocious defense. President Biden announced an additional $1billion in aid to the Ukrainian government on Wednesday as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin prepared to chair a committee of 50 Western countries in Brussels to calibrate a response. Biden and Zelensky spoke on the phone beforehand. The Pentagon said the last packages include two Harpoon coastal defense systems, 18 howitzers, 36,000 rounds for them, artillery rockets, secure radios and money for training. On Wednesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley said it was not yet an ‘inevitability’ that Russia would take hold of Eastern Ukraine. ‘There are no inevitabilities in war. War takes many, many turns. So I wouldn’t say it’s an inevitability.’ He conceded that the numbers ‘clearly favor the Russians’. Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said last week that the West had only given the country 10 percent of the weapons and support it needs. Drueke served in Iraq but had struggled to find work or reintegrate into society…
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