{"id":1652090,"date":"2022-09-21T18:22:56","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T22:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1652090"},"modified":"2022-09-21T18:23:51","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T22:23:51","slug":"two-americans-captured-fighting-for-ukraine-dodge-russian-firing-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/two-americans-captured-fighting-for-ukraine-dodge-russian-firing-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Americans Captured Fighting For Ukraine Dodge Russian Firing Squad"},"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\">20<\/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%2Ftwo-americans-captured-fighting-for-ukraine-dodge-russian-firing-squad%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=1652090&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--><p>Two U.S. veterans from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/alabama\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alabama<\/a> branded \u201csoldiers of fortune\u201d by Moscow after being captured <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/ukraine-russia-war\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fighting for Ukraine<\/a> have been spared their date with a firing squad after a Saudi-brokered prisoner swap.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, who were captured in June while defending Kharkiv, were at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia after being freed in the exchange, a representative of their families told Reuters Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled to announce that Alex and Andy are free,\u201d the representative said in a statement. \u201cWe deeply appreciate everyone\u2019s prayers and especially the close communication and support of our elected officials, Ukrainian Ambassador Markarova, and our members of the US embassies in Ukraine and Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Department of State.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JUST IN: Ten foreign fighters, including two Americans who joined the war effort in Ukraine before they were captured and held by Russian forces, were released as part of an exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gSAneEZIym\">https:\/\/t.co\/gSAneEZIym<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBC News (@NBCNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCNews\/status\/1572653416228306946?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 21, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The swap was part of a deal that also included five British nationals, one Moroccan, one Swede, and one Croatian.\u00a0It was mediated by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi foreign ministry said. Ukrainian officials released an unknown number of Russian captives as their part of the deal.<\/p>\n<p>Drueke and Huynh were the first known U.S. citizens to be captured by Russian forces. Huynh\u2019s fianc\u00e9, Joy Black, told Reuters at the time the men signed up to fight after seeing television footage of the Russian invasion, which began February 24.<\/p>\n<p>Drueke, of Tuscaloosa, and Huynh, of Hartselle, who both served in the U.S. military, did not know each other before joining the fight. They were captured in a\u00a0village near Kharkiv, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2022\/07\/14\/how-2-american-veterans-ended-ukraine-prisoners-of-russian-armed-militants.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Military.com reported in July<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA week ago, our team ended up isolated in the middle of a Russian offensive,\u201d the men\u2019s unit later posted in a June 15 tweet that announced their capture.<\/p>\n<p>After they were taken prisoner, Drueke and Huynh were held in the Donetsk People\u2019s Republic, a region in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists.<\/p>\n<p>Russian state TV aired interviews with the men in which they sympathized with Russia, but their families said they were under obvious duress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy name is Alexander\u00a0Drueke, I am against war,\u201d Drueke said in a video interview that Russia tweeted. \u201cYa protiv voyny,\u201d he adds, Russian for \u201cI am against war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Russia said shortly after their capture that they would face \u00a0a firing squad, because they were considered \u201csoldiers of fortune,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-11236125\/Russia-releases-U-S-citizens-Alexander-Drueke-Andy-Huynh-prisoner-exchange-family-representative.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two U.S. veterans from Alabama branded \u201csoldiers of fortune\u201d by Moscow after being captured fighting for Ukraine have been spared their date with a firing squad after a Saudi-brokered prisoner swap. Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, who were captured in June while defending Kharkiv, were at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia after &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1652094,"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-1652090","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\/1652090","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=1652090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1652094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1652090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1652090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1652090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}