A third American citizen was reported missing after traveling to Ukraine a day after two former US service members were reportedly captured by Russian forces, the State Department revealed Thursday.
State Department Spokesman Ned Price told reporters that it is believed the third US citizen traveled to Ukraine in recent weeks to “take up arms” and there are reports that his whereabouts are unknown.
He also said that the US was in touch with Ukrainian authorities and the International Red Cross to try to find out the fate of the other two missing Americans, who are believed to have been captured while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
The State Department was allegedly looking into reports that Russian or Russian-backed separatist forces in Ukraine had captured at least two American citizens.
Relatives of Alabama-born veterans Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh and Alexander Drueke, who were reportedly captured in combat near Kharkiv last week, have also been seeking information about the men’s whereabouts and have been in contact with both Senate and House offices.
Stressing out that the reports about the two men were unconfirmed, Price said that the US had still not reached out to the Russian Federation about the missing Americans and they also haven’t seen anything from the Russian side indicating that such individuals are in their custody.
He underlined that they won’t hesitate to reach out through the US embassy in Moscow or be productive in finding out more information on the whereabouts of these individuals if they had any indication about the men.
If confirmed that Huynh and Drueke have been in custody, they’d be the first Americans fighting for Ukraine known to have been captured since the war in Ukraine began on February 24.
Repeatedly denying that US troops are deployed to Ukraine, the US military has reiterated to the veterans that there are better ways to help Ukraine than responding to Kyiv’s calls to fight there.
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