Wednesday, June 29, 2022

First American casualties

I earlier posted about the four foreign volunteers -- from Australia, Netherlands, Germany, and France -- killed while defending Ukraine from Putin's aggression. Now at least two Americans have become Russian prisoners and risk being sentenced to death as mercenaries, as has already happened to three other foreigner fighters. According to Russian logic, they are not prisoners of war and therefore not protected by the Geneva Conventions -- as if Russia has ever bothered about honoring its international agreements. 

The Americans were identified by their families as Alex Drueke, 39 years old and a former US Army staff sergeant who served two tours in Iraq; and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, a veteran of the US Marines. They went missing earlier this month when their platoon came under heavy fire near Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, 25 miles from the Russian border. With the doublespeak typical of the Kremlin, a spokesman explained that they had fired upon Russian forces and would be “held responsible for the crimes they have committed.” This from the country that invaded Ukraine in the first place, presently occupies 20 percent of the country, and has killed Ukrainian soldiers and civilians by the thousands. 

The Russians have already sentenced volunteers from Britain and Morocco to death on the same bogus charges. Most likely the intention is not to carry out the sentences but to hold the men as hostages in future negotiations, and to discourage other young men from volunteering to serve in Ukraine's foreign legion. The irony is particularly rich, given that Russia uses actual mercenaries (from Chechnya, Syria, and the infamous Wagner Group) to beef up its own exhausted forces in Ukraine.

Earlier, there were reports that a third American might be a prisoner of the Russians, but I've seen nothing since about his fate.


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