In their first in depth interview since being freed, Alex Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh recount the bodily and psychological abuse they endured over 104 days in captivity
What adopted was an excruciating, typically terrifying 104 days in captivity. They have been interrogated, subjected to bodily and psychological abuse, and given little meals or clear water, Drueke and Huynh recalled. Initially, they have been taken into Russia, to a detention complicated dotted with tents and ringed by barbed wire, they stated. Their captors later moved them, first to a “black site” the place the beatings worsened, Drueke stated, after which to what they referred to as a extra conventional jail run by Russian-backed separatists within the Donetsk area of jap Ukraine.
Drueke, 40, and Huynh, 27, met with The Washington Post for 3 hours on the residence of Huynh’s fiancee, Joy Black, on this rural city of about 2,500 exterior Huntsville. It was their first in depth media interview since being freed on Sept. 21 as a part of a sprawling prisoner trade between Russia and Ukraine.
Each man misplaced almost 30 kilos through the ordeal, they stated, struggling accidents most evident within the purple and purple welts nonetheless current the place their wrists have been sure. Their account supplies disturbing new perception into how Russia and its proxy forces in Ukraine deal with these taken off the battlefield.
The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Drueke and Huynh, who met in Ukraine, went to the nation regardless of stern warnings from the U.S. State Department that taking on arms in opposition to Russian forces was unsafe and ill-advised. They joined the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, a power comprising a whole bunch of Americans, Europeans and different overseas nationals who responded to public entreaties from the nation’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Drueke and Huynh stated they’re grateful to be alive and free, and to have had one another’s help and friendship by their captivity. They expressed no remorse. Their objectives now, they stated, are to attract consideration to Ukraine’s army wants, and lift consciousness about one other American veteran with whom they have been imprisoned, Suedi Murekezi, who shared a cell with them for weeks however was not included within the prisoner swap. He’s among the many handful of U.S. citizens detained by Russia for whom a diplomatic breakthrough has to this point proved elusive.
“Alex and I never did this to become famous,” Huynh stated. “We never wanted to become famous.”
Drueke, a U.S. Army veteran, and Huynh, who served within the Marines, stated they have been compelled to behave after seeing photos, early within the battle, of Ukrainian households fleeing their properties as Russian forces leveled cities of their savage however finally failed bid to grab the capital, Kyiv, and topple Zelensky’s Western-backed authorities.
Drueke had been dwelling with relations in Tuscaloosa, Ala., after being identified as a one hundred pc fight disabled veteran with post-traumatic stress, he stated. He’d grown keen about long-distance mountain climbing. Huynh, a California native, had moved to northern Alabama to be along with his fiancee, taking neighborhood faculty lessons and dealing as a supply driver for O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Huynh left the United States on April 8 to hitch a humanitarian group serving to in Ukraine, he stated. Drueke left 4 days later, believing that his expertise through the Iraq War and familiarity with Western weapons might show useful to Ukrainian forces, he stated.
Within days, they signed contracts with the overseas legion in Lviv, in western Ukraine close to Poland’s border, becoming a member of the identical battalion and receiving AK-74 rifles for coaching removed from the preventing. They had introduced their very own camouflage uniforms and different gear.
Both adopted noms de guerre. Drueke was named “Bama,” in honor of his residence state. Huynh glided by “Hate,” a shortened model of “Reaper of Hate,” a moniker he utilized in on-line video video games.
“It was kind of a satire name because I’m not really a hateful person,” Huynh stated. “Quite the opposite.”
“We called him Care Bear,” Drueke interjected with amusing.
The males determined that “their skills could be better applied elsewhere” within the battle, and requested a launch from the contract they’d signed with their first unit, Drueke stated. For the subsequent few weeks, they traveled the nation by bus and practice in what they referred to as “vacation mode,” assembly with Ukrainian army officers about doable alternatives and marveling as civilians returned to their properties in and across the capital.
With time operating out on their 90-day visas, they linked in Kyiv with a consultant from Task Force Baguette, a army unit affiliated with the overseas legion that included French troopers and different Westerners. The unit promised a Ukrainian army contract, permitting them to remain within the nation and struggle. This time, they have been despatched east and issued Czech-made CZ 208 rifles, to a base near Russia’s border.
Their first mission, on June 9, could be their final.
That morning, the unit left Kharkiv in a pickup truck and two small sport-utility autos, heading north. Their task was to launch small drones, look ahead to Russian army forces and report what they noticed, Drueke stated.
But the unit was ambushed, and within the ensuing firefight everybody scattered, the Americans stated. Drueke, Huynh and their group chief started trying to find a machine-gunner and sniper who’d gone lacking, solely to study that different members of the unit had taken their autos — and most of their meals and water — and returned to base with out them, Drueke stated.
A consultant for Task Force Baguette denied that Drueke and Huynh have been left behind, saying the group scattered in 5 teams and that every needed to make it again to security on their very own “as nobody knew what happened to the others.” He declined to elaborate. In a tweet, the unit celebrated the Americans’ release, thanking them for his or her service and calling Drueke and Huynh “heroes.”
Drueke and Huynh declined to detail the exact location or nature of their seize, however acknowledged opening hearth through the ambush. After they have been taken into custody, they have been stripped of their gear and weapons, and sure. As they crossed the border into Russia, Drueke stated, their captors famous their new location, slugged them within the intestine, and stated “Welcome to Russia.”
The Americans have been blindfolded for a lot of the subsequent few days, they stated. Occasionally, their captors would take the blindfolds off, permitting them to catch a glimpse of their environment. The Russians hid their faces behind tan balaclavas.
The camp, the Americans stated, was a “tent city,” with six or seven prisoners of battle held in every tent, Huynh stated. Twin chain-link fences and barbed wire surrounded the compound.
The interrogations there, Drueke stated, have been “horrible.” The Russians appeared to doubt that they have been rank-and-file members of a Ukrainian army unit. They requested Drueke and Huynh repeatedly in the event that they have been with the CIA, the Americans recalled. They ordered them onto their fingers and knees, leaving them like that till their toes grew numb. If they moved, they have been crushed, they recalled. At night time, Drueke and Huynh have been pressured to stay on their toes for hours at a time to forestall them from sleeping.
“They really thought that we had been sent by our government, or had a large amount of government support,” Drueke stated. “They really wanted to make sure we weren’t lying about that — and they had their ways of doing that.”
Most of the prisoners seemed to be Ukrainian, the Americans stated. One who spoke English appeared to presumably be a British nationwide. In the Sept. 21 prisoner swap, 5 British residents additionally have been freed, together with people from Morocco, Sweden and Croatia, greater than 200 Ukrainians, 55 Russian troops and a detailed acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Four days later, the Americans have been on the transfer once more, they stated, taken to a black website detention middle within the Donetsk area of jap Ukraine, the place Russian separatists have energy. The prisoners traveled for hours with luggage over their heads, the Americans stated, and swapped autos 4 occasions.
Drueke realized Huynh was with him solely as a result of he was tossed on prime of him in one of many autos, prompting Huynh to reply with an “ouch” that Drueke acknowledged, he stated. In such a dire state of affairs, it was a reduction.
Their therapy worsened on the subsequent location, they stated.
Most of the detainees have been stored in a chilly basement divided into tiled cells, every about 5 toes lengthy and a pair of toes vast, Huynh recalled. They acquired a loaf of bread every day, together with water that usually seemed to be contaminated. Huynh stated he might hear screams — and cries of ache — as interrogations have been performed.
“That was one of the worst parts,” Huynh stated. “Hearing people being hurt and not being able to do anything about it.”
Upstairs, a barely bigger room was used for solitary confinement. Huynh spent the primary two days there earlier than Drueke was put there for a number of weeks. About 80 songs of in style music, together with from the rapper Eminem and the German steel band Rammstein, have been pumped into the room on rotation for days, they stated, shattering the peace however permitting them to mark the passage of time.
“They really, really kept us separate there,” Drueke stated. “There were times where I would go days without hearing anything about Andy, and a lot of times I was, like, ‘Man, they killed him.’ ”
Beatings continued, which a few of their captors seeming to relish meting out greater than others. A British man, Paul Urey, suffered beatings on the similar facility and died there, Drueke and Huynh stated. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba introduced Sept. 7 that the Ukrainian authorities had recovered Urey’s physique and that it had “signs of possible unspeakable torture.”
Many of the questions posed by interrogators appeared nonsensical, asking the Americans to establish pictures of individuals they didn’t know and detail occasions through which they’d no involvement. One of the lads spoke near-fluent English, whereas one other knew solely some, Drueke stated. He believes they have been Russian intelligence officers.
In the upstairs room, Drueke and Huynh every have been ordered to make cellphone calls to seemingly random organizations within the United States, many not geared up to assist them.
At one level, the captors advised Drueke to name the Veterans Crisis Line, a service that gives psychological well being help to American army personnel after they go away the service. Drueke stated he tried to dissuade them from doing it as a result of it made no sense, however his captors insisted.
“They look at me and go, ‘You are a veteran. This is a crisis!’ ” Drueke recalled, imitating their accent.
Many of the cellphone calls went nowhere, getting misplaced in a maze of phone switchboards, voice-mail packing containers and Americans who appeared to query whether or not the pleas for assist have been reliable. But a consultant on the disaster hotline supplied Drueke numbers for the State Department and one other federal company, presumably the Federal Protective Service, a legislation enforcement outfit affiliated with the Department of Homeland Security. Someone picked up on the second quantity, Drueke stated, and so they took his data and promised to assist. It was a glimmer of hope.
A State Department official, talking on the situation of anonymity below floor guidelines set by the company, stated it takes critically its dedication to help U.S. residents abroad, with U.S. diplomatic amenities placing after-hours obligation officers on employees to cope with life-or-death emergencies.
“When U.S. citizens are being held in active war zones, it is impossible to provide in-person assistance,” the official stated. “Regardless of the challenges, we make every effort to provide assistance to U.S. citizens and their families.”
The captors, who have been armed, ordered Drueke and Huynh to seem in propaganda interviews that appeared on Russian state media, and noticed as they have been recorded, Drueke stated. In one printed June 17, they expressed frustration with corruption within the Ukrainian army and warned different Americans to “think twice” about becoming a member of the battle effort. Drueke stated it nonetheless bothers him that he needed to say such issues.
‘I actually prayed for death’
The Americans, together with a number of different prisoners, have been moved once more about 4 weeks later, Drueke and Huynh stated. Joining them was Murekezi, a U.S. Air Force veteran who was despatched to the black website after being detained within the southern metropolis of Kherson in June. He had been dwelling and dealing in Ukraine when Russia invaded, and declined to depart the nation. Russian-backed separatists kidnapped him and accused him of a hate crime, stated Sele Murekezi, Suedi’s brother, who lives in Minnesota.
There have been no beatings on the subsequent facility, however situations have been nonetheless abysmal, the Americans stated. Bedbugs gnawed at their pores and skin, leaving the partitions of their cell streaked with blood, Huynh stated. His arms and again remained closely scarred by the bugs greater than per week after he was launched.
The Americans had no concept {that a} prisoner swap was below dialogue, and questioned if it was true even after they have been faraway from their cells and advised they have been going residence. Their fingers and eyes have been sure excruciatingly tight with packing tape for his or her flight to a small Russian airstrip, in circumstances that they described as agonizingly painful however declined to detail absolutely.
“For me personally, it was the absolute worst,” Drueke stated. “I realized a lot of times throughout that I could die, or that I was close to death, or that I probably was going to die. But that was the only time that I actually prayed for death.”
When they landed, they have been greeted by Saudi medical personnel. They have been whisked from there to Riyadh, the place they met with State Department personnel and referred to as family members.
The two males are nonetheless receiving medical care. Both have numbness of their fingers, a doable symptom of nerve harm, they stated. Drueke believes he might have cracked 4 ribs. Huynh is battling short-term reminiscence loss and stated that his thoughts “deteriorated” in captivity.
The pair are concerned about serving to the U.S. authorities by relating their experiences by the hands of Putin’s forces, they stated. Other Americans, together with WNBA star Brittney Griner and Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan, are incarcerated inside Russia on what the Biden administration considers bogus legal convictions unrelated to the battle.
“It sounds trite, but we were given a second chance on life,” Drueke stated. “I feel like our experiences, if we handle them the right way, we potentially have a lot to give the world.”
Alice Crites contributed to this report.
