– We just wanted to die, we wanted it to end, says American Andy Huynh.
Together with Alexander Drueke, he went to fight on the Ukrainian side in the war in April. They did not know each other before, but they were placed in the same unit in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.
On June 9 they were captured in a failed operation, they now say in their first joint interview:
– Anything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong, Drueke adds ABC news.
I have 30 seconds to eat
– I thought I was going to be killed at that moment
Drueke says their unit was on reconnaissance near the village of Izbytske on the outskirts of Kharkiv to inspect the areas when they encountered a Russian battalion.
Then a shooting broke out.
Drueke says they initially avoided being captured by fleeing for eight hours, but were eventually surrounded.
– We were asked to kneel and our hands were tied behind our backs. I was pretty sure we would be executed at that time, she tells the US channel.
Brought to an unknown place
A Russian state television channel later posted a video of the two with their hands behind their backs at the back of a loading dock.
According to Drueke, they were first transported to a Russian outpost, before being taken to an unknown location.
There it is said that they were interrogated, beaten, mistreated and kept awake for several hours, and had to live on leftover bread and dirty water.
Drueke had a broken rib, he says:
– I thought I would die from the conditions or be killed, he says.
105 days of imprisonment
Drueke and Huynh spent 105 days in captivity, before they and eight other foreign prisoners finally was released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine on 21 September.
MEETING: Andy Huynh reunited with a family member on September 24th. Photo: Kim Chandler / AP / NTB
sea View
Among them was the British Shaun Pinner, about which Dagbladet previously wrote.
Norwegian Erik Helgesplass, who knows Pinner, said he reacted in tears when he learned of the release.
– I don’t often have tears in my eyes, but I must say it was very joyful, he told Dagbladet.
Drueke and Huynh, like Pinner, were threatened with the death penalty. There is no death penalty in Russia, but in the legal system formed by the separatists in eastern Ukraine, people can be sentenced to death.
– One thing is absolutely clear: they committed crimes. They are not soldiers of the Ukrainian forces, so the Geneva Convention does not apply to them, said the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, only when the Americans were captured.
