Footage of captured Alabama veterans released by Russian state media

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Days after being captured in Ukraine, footage from two Alabama army veterans has been launched.

On Friday, movies that includes Alex Drueke and Andy Huynh was launched on Telegram from reporters with RT, a state-run Russian media outlet. Drueke and Huhn, who’re believed to be the primary American prisoners of battle within the Ukraine-Russia battle, had been known as “mercenaries.”

Drueke and Huynh had been appearing as volunteers with a Ukrainian unit once they had been captured throughout an operation exterior Kharviv by the Russians.

Drueke, who’s initially from Tuscaloosa and spent two Military excursions in Iraq, was seen in a single video addressed to his mom, Lois.

“Mother, I simply needed to let you recognize that I’m alive and I hope to be again house as quickly as I can, so love Diesel (Drueke’s canine) for me,” Drueke informed RT correspondent Corr Kosarev in a video posted to Telegram. “Love you.”

Kosarev wrote the next description (translated from Russian to English via Google Translate) within the video for Drueke:

“The captured American mercenary Alexander Dryuke turned to his mom via me. He mentioned that he was alive, and mentioned whats up to his canine named Diesel. Hope to return house. We’ll see. Watch the interview on RT quickly. There are two of them, and fairly not too long ago they couldn’t even discover Ukraine on the map.”

In a collection of movies on Kosarev’s web page, Huynh mentioned surrendering to Russian forces, in addition to calling most of the Ukrainian army items “corrupt.” Huynh, a Marine who had been dwelling in Trinity, Alabama earlier than going to Ukraine, could be seen saying in a single video saying that media protection of the battle was “propaganda.”

“Initially, when the battle began on February 24, I noticed quite a lot of information, and once more, I now consider that it was propaganda from the West aspect, not particularly simply America, however the West as a complete that mentioned that Russian forces had been indiscriminately killing civilians,” Huynh mentioned. “Throughout my travels, I didn’t see that.”

Huynh additionally mentioned he was being handled humanely by his Russian captors.

“They gave us water once we wanted them,” he mentioned. “At nighttime, once we had been in captivity, it acquired very chilly and so they gave us blankets to maintain heat. We couldn’t transfer as a result of we had been certain so we don’t escape, and they might readjust our blankets, too.”

In one other video, Drueke and Huynh could be seen expressing disapproval for the battle, as soon as in English and once more in Russian.

“My identify is Alexander Drueke, I’m towards battle,” Drueke mentioned.

Alabama’s members of the U.S. Home and Senate have been involved with the U.S. State Division about Drueke and Huynh.