The families of Alabama veterans Alexander J. Drueke, 39 a former soldier, and Andy Tai Huynh, 27, a former Marine, fear both men have been captured by Russian forces in action while fighting with a foreign volunteer regiment of the Ukrainian army, the Washington Post reports. Neither man has been heard from since June 8th, when both told their families they would be out of contact for the next several days during a mission near the contested eastern city Kharkiv.
Drueke’s mother was contacted Monday by another American volunteer in Ukraine who said Russian comms intercepts suggested two Americans had been nabbed. Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, two British volunteers for the Ukrainian army were sentenced to death last week by the fake Russian-backed government of the Donetsk breakaway region. They have one month to appeal their sentence, which is probably meaningless in practice and more likely to buy time to leverage them against UK sanctions on Russia. Since the invasion began in February, one American volunteer, 22-year-old Marine veteran Willy Cancel, has been confirmed killed in action in Ukraine.