First two US fighters are captured by Russian soldiers in battle for Kharkiv amid fears they will be handed death sentences like two British soldiers caught by Putin's army
- Robert Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, were captured while fighting for the Ukrainian army last week
- The pair were part of a ten-men squad which encountered Russian forces in Kharkiv
- They disabled a Russian tank but then were lost in the fog of return fire then disappeared, comrades say
- Now, there are fears they may be given the same death sentences as Brits Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin
- They were captured in April and were last week sentenced to death by firing squad
- The Biden administration has not yet commented on the capture of the two American servicemen captured
Robert Drueke and Andy Huynh were taken prisoner by Russian forces last week on the outskirts of Kharkiv, according to sources cited by The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.
Drueke, 39, and Huynh, 27, are both from Alabama. One of their comrades described losing sight of the pair in a battle last week.
Drueke served in the US Army in Iraq whereas Huynh, a former Marine, has never been in active combat before.
'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,' said one of their comrades.
Robert Drueke and Andy Huynh were taken prisoner by Russian forces last week on the outskirts of Kharkiv , according to sources cited by The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.
The unnamed comrade said the pair disabled a Russian tank with a grenade but were lost in the fog of return fire.
By the time it cleared, they were gone.
'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.
- Drueke served in Iraq for the US Army. He is shown in his regalia
Drueke, 39, is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He served in Iraq but had struggled to find work or reintegrate into society after returning from war, his mother told the Telegraph.
'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.
Before he flew to the region, Huynh told a local newspaper about why he wanted to volunteer.
'I know it wasn't my problem but there was that gut feeling that I felt I had to do something. Two weeks after the war began, it kept eating me up inside and it just felt wrong. I was losing sleep... All I could think about was the situation in Ukraine,' he said.
He served in the Marines for four years, including on a base in Okinawa, Japan, for two years, but he has never been in active combat before.
It comes after two Brits were taken prisoner by Putin's army. Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin have been handed death sentences by a proxy court in eastern Ukraine. They were captured in April.
Now, the pair have been sentenced to death by firing squad. British officials say they are doing everything they can to get the pair out of Russian custody before they are slaughtered.
Source:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nteers-captured-Russian-soldiers-Ukraine.html
