“Then we sent drones and we had a Ukrainian search team on the ground, but we found nothing: if they had been hit by the tank missile there would have been the remains of their bodies or equipment on the spot.” He said his suspicions were confirmed later that night when a message appeared on a Russian Telegram channel claiming that two American soldiers had been taken prisoner near Kharkov. “It’s very coincidental that something different has happened – we are the only Americans fighting in this region.”

“I just want to have him back safely”

Mr. Drueke, 39, is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama and has served in the U.S. military in Iraq. His mother, Lois, 68, told The Telegraph he had been having a hard time keeping a job since returning from military service as a result of PTSD.
“The US embassy has assured me that they are doing everything they can to find him and that they are looking for him alive, not dead. I will do everything I can to prevent him from collapsing, I will remain strong. with Russian Prisoners “. Mr. Huynh was born in California but lived in the Tennessee Valley area of ​​Alabama. In the past he served in the US Marines. His partner, Joey Black, said he received a call from Mr Huynh’s companions on Monday to say he had disappeared. “I was told they had not made their appointment,” he said, adding that some drone searches “found no trace” of him. He added that the idea of ​​volunteering “gnaws” Mr. Huynh from the very first day of the Russian invasion on February 24. “He told me: They are attacking with 60 battalions, do you know how many there are? “In the beginning, I did not take him seriously, but he was reading all these stories about young Ukrainians who had to fight when he was just 18 and he felt he had to try to help. “I tried to persuade him not to go, but I think he had decided. I could see he was gnawing at him. Eventually, he apologized and said he really had to leave. “He did not tell me anything about the operation he did last week, as he did not want to scare me. “I just want to have him back safely.” Contact the US Embassy in Kyiv for comment.