Two navy veterans from Alabama who volunteered to defend Ukraine from Russian invaders however have been captured are again residence, based on a press release offered to the Guardian on Sunday.
The statement from the household of Alex Drueke, 40, stated he and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, have been amongst 10 international nationals included in a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia that was mediated by the Saudi Arabian authorities.
After Drueke and Huynh underwent a medical examination and have been cleared to journey, their households organized for the pair to fly commercially from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to New York. From New York they flew to Birmingham, arriving shortly after midday on Saturday, the Drueke household assertion stated.
Drueke’s mom, Lois “Bunny” Drueke, and Huynh’s fiancee, Pleasure Black, met the pair in New York and accompanied them residence to Alabama.
Drueke’s aunt, Dianna Shaw, who has served as a spokesperson for the 2 households, stated the 2 males have been “in glorious spirits”. She offered an image of them stress-free at a bar in Birmingham, forty first Avenue Pub & Plane Gross sales.
Shaw stated the households would concentrate on the 2 males’s well being earlier than they underwent interviews with US and Ukraine authorities officers “to doc their remedy whereas in captivity”.
A press release attributed to Huynh stated he and Drueke survived in captivity thanks partly to understanding folks in Alabama and elsewhere within the US have been praying for them.
“That’s what obtained us via,” the assertion stated. “I’ve no regrets about going.”
Huynh stated the lads’s captors made them say issues to Russian media that have been insincere.
“Anybody who is aware of us would perceive that wasn’t us,” the assertion stated.
Drueke stated he wished “to thank everybody who helped safe our freedom”, together with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken.
“Whether or not you known as your congresspeople, informed a neighbor about us, prayed for us, no matter you probably did, you helped make this attainable,” Drueke stated.
The assertion from Drueke’s household stated his first request upon returning to Alabama was for a beer and a reunion together with his canine, Diesel, a 100lb mastiff. Huynh requested to eat his favourite quick meals and to get a haircut he might exhibit at church on Sunday with Black.
Drueke accomplished two excursions of fight with the US military in Iraq – leaving him with post-traumatic stress dysfunction – earlier than going to Ukraine by way of Poland in April. He taught Ukrainian troopers easy methods to use weapons from different nations of their combat in opposition to the Russian invasion, which started on order of Vladimir Putin in February.
A member of Drueke’s unit known as his mom and informed her her son and Huynh have been captured throughout a gunfight on 9 June, north of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis.
Drueke and Huynh, who served with the US marines, have been taken to a detention middle within the Ukrainian metropolis of Donetsk, which has been below Russian management.
They later appeared in Russian media clips, Huynh purporting to be in opposition to struggle and Drueke describing how he surrendered with out firing a shot.
The assertion from Shaw stated Drueke and Huynh’s households “will proceed to advocate for assist for Ukraine”.
“If the democracy of Ukraine falls to Russian dictatorship, then free Europe is in peril, and the US may very well be too,” the assertion stated.
US officers together with Joe Biden have discouraged Individuals from volunteering to defend Ukraine. Whereas the US helps Ukraine by offering billions of {dollars} in weapons and different assets, officers have warned they’re restricted of their capacity to assist US residents in instances the place issues go unsuitable there.
Many US nationals have nonetheless travelled to Ukraine. A handful have been killed.
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