Two U.S. Veterans Suspected Captured In Ukraine, White House Urges Americans Not To Travel To Ukraine

Alexander Drueke, 39 years of age, and Andy Tai Huynh, 27 years of age, both Alabama residents have gone missing within the last few days near Kharkiv, Ukraine which is located near the Russian border, according to their families. U.S. State Department has reported that two Americans have been captured in Ukraine but did not identify who they were.

After reports of the soldiers being captured by Russian soldiers, the White House put out a statement advising Americans not to travel to Ukraine.

Drueke’s mother, whose name is Lois said that she received a phone call from another American citizen who had told her that intercepted communications suggested that the two Americans had been taken prisoner by Russian forces.

Before his disappearance, Drueke had told his family that he was in Ukraine teaching troops how to use American-made weapons, according to his mother, who said "Alex felt very strongly that he had been trained in ways that he could help the Ukrainians be strong and push Putin back. He went over there not to fight but to train".

Huynh’s fiance, Joy Black said that Huynh had volunteered to fight along with Ukrainian forces and also received a phone call saying that Huynh had gone missing. She said, "The response that we’ve gotten from our government has been very helpful. They have been taking it very seriously. We got the call on Monday morning, and this has just gone up so high, so quickly".

The U.S. State Department said, "We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Ukrainian authorities. ... 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 official".
 

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