{"id":1388117,"date":"2022-03-18T06:44:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T10:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388117"},"modified":"2022-03-18T10:59:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T14:59:48","slug":"russia-claims-it-killed-three-americans-in-ukraine-here-are-the-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russia-claims-it-killed-three-americans-in-ukraine-here-are-the-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Claims It Killed Three Americans In Ukraine. Here Are The Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frussia-claims-it-killed-three-americans-in-ukraine-here-are-the-facts%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388117&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2021\/12\/US-soldiers.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Russian news website Pravda <a href=\"https:\/\/english.pravda.ru\/news\/world\/150742-us_mercenaries_donetsk\/\">reported<\/a> Thursday that pro-Russian forces killed three current or former members of the U.S. National Guard from Tennessee during a battle in eastern Ukraine \u2014 a charge U.S. officials strongly deny.<\/p>\n<p>Russian forces allegedly killed three U.S. \u201cmercenaries\u201d sent to train Ukrainian soldiers during the \u201cliberation\u201d of Marinka, in the so-called Donetsk People\u2019s Republic. The news service says the servicemen\u2019s slayers found their personal identification among their remains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a backpack near the remains of one of the militants, a Tennessee flag of the United States was found, as well as other items that made it possible to identify the deceased as Captain Michael Hawker, Lieutenant Logan Shrum and Lieutenant Cruz Toblin,\u201d a militia commander told Pravda.<\/p>\n<p>The National Guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalguard.mil\/Resources\/Press-Releases\/Article\/2970567\/national-guard-refutes-russian-state-media-reports-that-falsely-claim-tennessee\/\">rushed out a statement<\/a> Thursday evening saying that all three men are alive and well \u2014 and calling Pravda\u2019s article \u201cpatently false.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe three soldiers identified in the article are either current or former members of the Tennessee National Guard,\u201d said the Office of the Tennessee Adjutant General. \u201cThey are accounted for, safe and not, as the article headline erroneously states, US mercenaries killed in Donetsk People\u2019s Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Officials believe the the names of Hawker, Shrum, and Toblin were chosen based on articles on the Pentagon\u2019s website about a <em>previous <\/em>mission in Ukraine in 2018.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This afternoon the Russian media outlet \u201cPravda\u201d falsely reported that three members of the Tennessee National Guard, which it labeled as \u201cmercenaries\u201d were killed while fighting in Ukraine. The reporting by \u201cPravda\u201d is patently false. Statement: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8aX1hVYZuI\">https:\/\/t.co\/8aX1hVYZuI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/b80lHu04AI\">pic.twitter.com\/b80lHu04AI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NGB-PA Press Desk (@NGBPA1636) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NGBPA1636\/status\/1504591243568889856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>At that time, members of the Tennessee National Guard\u2019s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment was serving as military instructors in the Multinational Training Group-Ukraine. The Defense Department says all the soldiers returned to the United States in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>More than 200 U.S. soldiers took part in the mission, as The Army Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/flashpoints\/ukraine\/2022\/03\/17\/contrary-to-russian-media-reports-3-tennessee-guardsmen-were-not-killed-in-ukraine\/\">reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>All members of the Tennessee National Guard returned home safely in 2019, though other Guard units have since rotated through<\/em><em>,\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The 160 soldiers of the Florida National Guard deployed to Ukraine since November were ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to leave the country amid increasing concern of a Russian attack in mid-February.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The possibility of U.S. casualties so concerned the Pentagon that it swiftly rebutted the charge. \u201cThe National Guard raced out a statement so quickly that there were even typos in the statement,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/\">NewsNation<\/a> host Dan Abrams on Thursday night. \u201cIt shows you how seriously they took this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is meant for internal, Russian consumption. It\u2019s not meant for people here in the states,\u201d said Newsweek editor Naveed Jamali. He said misinformation is \u201cbecoming a specter of the war in Ukraine, this controlling of information\u201d to shape public perception.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis further perpetuates Vladimir Putin\u2019s narrative that he is at war with the West, and the United States is trying to help the Ukrainians, and he is there to liberate them,\u201d said NewsNation host Leland Vittert, who was a guest on \u201cDan Abrams Live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pravda served as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Pravda\">official organ<\/a> of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1918 until the Evil Empire\u2019s dissolution in 1991. During that time, \u201cpravda\u201d became synonymous with \u201cpropaganda\u201d in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPravda\u2019s are expected to be as accurate as possible,\u201d the website\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/english.pravda.ru\/ethics_policy.html\">Ethics Policy<\/a> states. \u201cGetting facts from verifiable sources is the cardinal principle of journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe irony is <em>pravda <\/em>in Russian translates to \u2018truth,\u2019\u201d said Vittert.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Russian news website Pravda reported Thursday that pro-Russian forces killed three current or former members of the U.S. National Guard from Tennessee during a battle in eastern Ukraine \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}