Alexander Drueke, photographed at home with his mother. /
Drueke and Huynhm, who had disappeared a week ago, were captured while fighting in Kharkov.
The media war that is also taking place in Ukraine is clearly being lost by Vladimir Putin. While kyiv’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has emerged as an international hero, his Moscow counterpart resembles the devil in the popular consciousness of most of the world. The head of the Kremlin is only well regarded among his compatriots, often victims of the apparatus’ ironclad propaganda.
For this reason, Moscow does not miss an opportunity to try to take advantage of certain turns that the war is leading. It happened, for example, this Saturday, when the capture by their occupying forces in Ukraine of two US soldiers fighting on the Ukrainian side became one more weapon to convince the Russians that things are not as bad as It seems.
A state television channel published videos of Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, both US military veterans from the southern state of Alabama, in which they admitted their mistake for having enlisted on the wrong side. “My name is Alexander Drueke, I am against war,” said the first in English. Then, in Russian, Huynh repeated the message: “Ya protiv voyny.”
Another recording shows Drueke addressing his mother, Bunny, promising to come home. “Mom, I just wanted you to know that I am alive and hope to be back as soon as I can.” “I love you,” he added.
The two Americans, branded mercenaries by the Kremlin, were reported missing last week while fighting near the Russian border.
Biden Mobilization
Families and members of Congress mobilized immediately. Also the president, Joe Biden, but for several days there was no news from them. The State Department soon floated the hypothesis that the soldiers, including a third soldier who was a Marine captain, had been taken prisoner.
On Friday night, Russian RT television journalist Roman Cossarev posted a video on the Telegram messaging platform in which Drueke spoke to the camera sitting in what appeared to be an office and wearing military clothing. “Send my love to Diesel, I love you,” he told his mother with a quick wink. According to reports from Alabama, Diesel is his dog.
Telegram RT also broadcast an interview with Huynh, where he stated that the two “met in combat against Russian troops” near the strategic Ukrainian area of Kharkov. “They invaded our positions. We had to go back and one of my colleagues and I waited for about three hours in a trench to make sure the area was cleared,” Huynh said. “We ended up walking through the woods for about five hours. We came to a road where we gave up.”
Both Americans ended their interventions by assuring the precarious Russian that they were “against the war.” Then Telegram RT offered its followers the opportunity to meet “the American mercenaries who came to fight us.” “They were stationed near Kharkov. After meeting our men, they now hate war and want peace, and want to go home. However this is unlikely.
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