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One of the U.S. Army veterans who was captured in Ukraine by Russian fighters was permitted to speak with his mother recently over the phone.
Lois Drueke, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, spoke with her son Alex on Tuesday for nearly 10 minutes in their first conversation since he and Andy Huynh, another Alabama veteran who traveled to Ukraine, were captured earlier this month. Drueke, 39, and Huynh, 27, were imprisoned during a battle north of Kharkiv on June 9.
RUSSIAN MILITARY DENIES HITTING MALL IN STRIKE THAT KILLED NEARLY 20
“He sounded tired and stressed, and he was clearly reciting some things he had been made to practice or read, but it was wonderful to hear his voice and know he’s alive and alright,” she said, adding that the U.S. Embassy in Russia is pushing the Kremlin to reveal their whereabouts, according to the Guardian.
Following their capture, Russian leaders said they would not be afforded the universal basic rights of prisoners of war, which prompted swift backlash from U.S. leaders.
“It’s appalling that a public official in Russia would even suggest the death penalty for two American citizens that were in Ukraine,” U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters last week, in response to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s claim that “they are not Ukrainian army, so they are not subject to [the] Geneva Convention.”
Other administration officials, including President Joe Biden, have reiterated their warning that Americans should not travel to Ukraine.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Thousands of Western volunteers traveled to Ukraine after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion to assist Ukrainian forces in the war effort, even though administration officials warned against it. The Kremlin warned in March that it would not treat captured foreigners as prisoners of war.
Earlier this month, three other foreign fighters on Ukraine’s side, a Moroccan citizen and two British citizens, were captured and sentenced to death by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
