Two American citizens fighting in Ukraine are believed to have been captured by Russian forces in a village somewhere near the city of Kharkov.
Robert Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, are their names. Drueke is from Alabama, and his call sign is “Bama.” Huynh was born in California, but lived in Alabama. His call sign is “Hate.” Both are veterans of the United States Marine Corps.
An anonymous source who claims to have been one of their squad members says, “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 and about 100 infantry. The only thing that was there was our 10-man squad.”
The source says Bama & Hate fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Russian vehicle. Afterward, they were targeted by return fire, and he lost sight of them. Later, the area was searched with drones, and there was no sign of any bodies. “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.”
Shortly after, multiple Russian Telegram channels began reporting the capture of two American citizens near Kharkov. The source believes the telegram posts are proof they are still alive and in custody rather than deceased.
No one from the Russian side has officially confirmed the capture of any American citizens. Currently, Russia has captured at least three British citizens, one citizen of Morocco, and one citizen of South Korea.
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department says they are monitoring the situation. The spokesman also said “We also once again reiterate U.S. citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict and the singling out of U.S. citizens in Ukraine by Russian government security officials, and that U.S. citizens in Ukraine should depart immediately if it is safe to do so using any commercial or other privately available ground transportation options.”
However, the official media outlet of the U.S. State Department, Radio Freedom, published a new video romanticizing foreign volunteers in Ukraine on June 3rd. On June 6th, the U.S. State Department posted the video on their official YouTube channel. The U.S. State Department video includes on an interview with an Australian who says, “I hope I inspire more people to come here.”
Five days ago, Business Insider published a video about a 700-person foreign volunteer unit fighting in Kharkov Oblast called Carpathian Sich. It is unknown if Bama & Hate were part of this unit.
