<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655480940740,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655480940740,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_53335662", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1018051"} }); rn","_id":"00000181-725a-dd13-a9fb-7a7e71e70000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPresident Joe Biden has been briefed on the three Americans whose locations within Ukraine are currently unknown, he said Friday.
The news of the three Americans came to light earlier this week, with the State Department acknowledging the first two’s disappearances on Wednesday and the third on Thursday. Their unknown whereabouts prompted renewed calls from Biden administration officials for Americans not to go to Ukraine amid the war.
“Americans should not be going to Ukraine,” the president added multiple times on Friday morning as he departed the White House.
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State Department spokesman Ned Price said they were aware of reports that Alexander Drueke, Andy Huynh, and Grady Kurpasi were missing and are in touch with Ukrainian authorities.
Kurpasi, who served in the Marine Corps for 20 years, arrived in Ukraine to fight against the Russians on March 7. His last known location was in the Kherson region, in southeastern Ukraine, where he manned an observation post in late April, according to CNN, while a photo posted on the social media platform Telegram by a Russian blogger on Thursday purportedly showed the other two Americans in the back of a Russian military truck with their hands apparently tied behind their backs.
“It is a war zone. It is combat,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “If you feel passionate about supporting Ukraine, there is any number of other ways to do that that are safer and just as effective. Ukraine is not the place for Americans to be traveling.”
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Thousands of Western volunteers have 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 foreign fighters, a Moroccan citizen and two British citizens, captured in Ukraine were sentenced to death by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russian investigators have opened more than 1,100 cases into Ukrainian leaders for allegedly committing “crimes against peace,” though Western leaders have spoken out against these cases.
