'Ambushed': Former Marine Is Latest Veteran Killed in
Ukraine War
A Marine veteran was killed last week in an eastern Ukrainian city
where the country's military has been locked for months in intense
fighting with Russian forces, according to multiple sources.
Cooper "Harris" Andrews, 26, was killed in Bakhmut, where he was
ambushed by Russian forces while defending evacuees, journalist Jake
Hanrahan tweeted
Sunday on Twitter. Hanrahan said Andrews was killed alongside
other "fighters" and was a member of Popular
Front, a grassroots conflict journalism platform.....
Inmates have described scenes of
isolation and intense interrogations inside cramped
cells at Russia's notorious Lefortovo Prison where
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has
been locked up. The prison where he is being held
has a long and violent history and it is where
political prisoners were mass executed under Soviet
Union leader Joseph Stalin in the 1930s and where
KGB officers tortured opponents. It currently houses
former US marine veteran Paul Whelan who was handed
a 16-year jail sentence in 2020 after being accused
of spying.....
Evan Gershkovich, 31, was
escorted out of Lefortovo court in Moscow,
flanked by authorities - after he visited the
country's fourth-largest city to write up about
the feared Wagner group....
A US Army veteran from Wisconsin died fighting in Ukraine last week,
grieving family members announced this week.
Andrew Peters, 28, died Feb. 16 while fighting alongside the
International Legion of the Defense of Ukraine, the man’s father told
Wisconsin Public Radio in an email.
Peters is believed to be the seventh American killed on the
frontlines in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began a year
ago....
American medic in Ukraine killed while
helping evacuate others - NewsBreak
..... Pete Reed, 34, was
killed on Thursday in Bakhumut as he was helping citizens
evacuate. Five people also were injured when his vehicle reportedly
was hit by a missile.
...Reed
was from Bordentown, N.J., and was a former United States Marine
Corps rifleman
who had served two tours in Helmand, Afghanistan .
He went on to begin medical training in northern Iraq in late 2015.
During his time in Iraq, he worked alongside Iraqi special
forces....
An Air
Force veteran who had been held in a prison in an area of
Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed forces is on his way to
Kyiv after a series of events that allegedly saw him traveling
alone in the war-riddled region after being freed from custody
six weeks ago.
Suedi
Murekezi, a 35-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran originally
from Rwanda, was captured in the eastern city of Kherson,
Ukraine, in June. On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said that
Murekezi had been freed from the area in conjunction with a
prisoner swap, and ABC News reported having spoken with Murekezi
as he moved toward the Ukrainian capital.
Trent Davis joined the Georgian Legion in Ukraine to
help the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russians. They did
not send him to the front as he lacked the necessary experience.
Later in the year, he joined the International Legion and was killed
on his first mission. The Army Times described Davis as
inexperienced, ...
US Army Veteran Dies While Fighting as Volunteer in
Ukraine
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — In the days since Dane Partridge was fatally
wounded while serving as a volunteer soldier
in Ukraine, his sister has found moments of comfort in
surprising places: First, a misplaced baseball cap discovered in her
laundry room, then in a photo of a battered pickup truck with only
one tire intact.
The 34-year-old Idaho man died Tuesday from injuries sustained
during during a Russian attack in Luhansk...
... Alex Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, were fighting together in
the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine on
June 9 when they were apprehended and taken captive by a
Russian-supported separatist group known as the Donetsk People's
Republic, a quasi nation-state within Ukraine that has not been
recognized by the United States....
2 Americans die in Donbas region of Ukraine: Report
Two Americans believed to have been assisting Ukraine during
Russia’s months-long invasion have died in the eastern part of
the war-torn country, US officials said Friday night.
“We can confirm the recent deaths of two US citizens in the Donbas
region of Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson said, according
to ABC News. “We are in touch with the families and
providing all possible consular assistance.
“Out of respect to the families during this difficult time, we
have nothing further.”
At least two other American volunteer fighters have been killed in
Ukraine and two others have been captured by Russian forces.....
Pro-Russia separatists capture US Air Force vet in Ukraine: brother
U.S. Air Force veteran Suedi Murekezi has been captured by pro-Russia separatists
in Ukraine, according to his brother, making him at least the
third American to be detained.
Sele Murekezi told the Washington Post that on July 7 he
received a call from an unknown caller who gave the phone to
Suedi. Suedi Murekezi then told his brother that while living in
the city of Kherson he had been wrongfully accused of being part
of a pro-Ukraine protest and taken captive, Sele said...
Family
members of Alexander Drueke, one of two
veterans captured while fighting in eastern Ukraine earlier
this month who is being held by Russian-backed separatists,
contacted his family via phone on Saturday, directly addressing
his mother, Bunny Drueke, in the first alleged contact since
videos and pictures of the two surfaced on Russian media over a
week ago....
Moscow has said it
can not guarantee the lives of Alex Drueke, 39, and Andy
Huynh, 27, who were captured by state-backed forces during
fighting in Kharkiv on June 11....
....The State Department had not yet
even confirmed that Army veteran
Alexander Drueke, 39, and former Marine Andy Huynh,
27, had been captured by the Russians. The agency
said it had publicly and privately urged the Russian
government to live up to international obligations
in the treatment of any troops captured on the
battlefield....
Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov said the pair ought to be 'punished' for traveling
to the region to fight against Russian soldiers. Alex Drueke and
Andy Huynh are in captivity....
A US Marine
veteran, Matthew Heath, 40 (above), detained in Venezuela on
terrorism charges since 2020 has attempted suicide, according to
his family. ...
Russia calls their two captured American fighters
'mercenaries' and parade them on TV: Terrified-looking veterans are
made to speak in Russian as their families beg Biden to save them
from Putin's firing squad
A
video uploaded on Friday shows U.S. Army vet Alexander Drueke,
39, and Marine Andy Huynh, 27, captured by Russian forces and
denouncing war
It
comes after an undated photo of the men was uploaded on the
Telegram messaging app on Thursday showing them caught by
Kremlin forces
It
depicts the men loaded on the back of a Russian military truck
with their hands behind their backs and is said to be
circulating in Russian media
The U.S. State Department
is working to verify the photo, the first of the pair since they
went missing on June 9 after an ambush by Russian soldiers
The men's families have
pleaded to the Biden administration to save them after the men
traveled to Ukraine in April to help fight back the Kremlin
invasion
A third American, Marine
veteran Ret. Captain Grady Kurpasi, has also been confirmed
missing as the government has yet to speak with Russia on the
matter
An
American teacher and former diplomat in his 60s has been
sentenced to 14 years in a Russian penal colony after
airport workers found half an ounce (17 grams) of medical
marijuana in his luggage (inset). Marc Fogel (pictured left
at the 2018 World Cup in Russia), an English teacher at
the $34,000-a-year Anglo-American School in Moscow, was
detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in August
after Russian border officials singled his suitcase out for
inspection. Fogel was charged with smuggling and possession
of a 'large scale' of narcotics. He pleaded guilty to
charges of smuggling, storing, transporting, manufacturing
and processing narcotic drugs, Russia's Interfax news agency
said. The punitive sentence for the US citizen - who
formerly had US diplomatic status in Russia - is seen as a
move by Russia to hold 'legal hostages' for potential swap
deals in future....
A highly decorated, recently retired Marine captain is the third
US veteran missing in action during the Ukraine war, his family
and friends have said.
Grady Kurpasi — who joined the Marines after witnessing the Sept. 11
terror attacks while living in New York City — was last in contact
with his loved ones on April 24, a family friend, George Heath, first
told CNN.
Two days later, the Purple Heart vet left his post to “investigate”
sudden “small arms fire,” and Kurpasi radioed his unit that the
Ukrainian military was also opening fire, the family was told.....
Two American fighters have been taken as
prisoners of war in Ukraine, the first since the conflict
began. Robert Drueke (center) and Andy Huynh (left) 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. ...
