BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The households of two navy veterans from Alabama who’re lacking in Ukraine this week met just about with federal authorities officers and Ukraine’s ambassador, Oksana Markarova, and took part in two Ukrainian-American occasions to watch that nation’s Independence Day.
Alex Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, went lacking after their unit got here beneath heavy fireplace within the Kharkiv area of northeastern Ukraine close to the Russian border June 9.
“It was fantastic to listen to first-hand from the Ambassador that Alex and Andy are a precedence together with all their prisoners of battle,” Drueke’s mom, Bunny Drueke, mentioned after Thursday’s dialog with Markarova and 6 members of the U.S. Division of State.
“She additionally agreed to assist us get a letter to President (Volodymyr) Zelensky thanking him for calling our males heroes and asking him to not neglect them.”
Huynh’s fiancee, Pleasure Black, mentioned she was glad to have the ability to inform Markarova why he needed to assist Ukraine, in accordance with an announcement from the households.
“It simply laid on Andy’s coronary heart to see teenage boys in Ukraine becoming a member of the Army to attempt to defend their houses,” she mentioned. “Andy felt referred to as to assist, and Alex did too, and I may inform that touched her.”
Drueke and Huynh are believed to have been taken into the Donetsk area. Russia and the so-called Donetsk Individuals’s Republic at the moment management nearly all of the area. The U.S. doesn’t acknowledge the sovereignty of the DPR and has no diplomatic relations with them, making it vital for Ukraine to guide efforts to get the lads launched.
Neither Russia nor the DPR has confirmed any details about the lacking males.
Drueke, an Army veteran, served two excursions in Iraq whereas Huynh served 4 years within the U.S. Marines.
Each Black and Bunny Drueke additionally not too long ago participated in two Ukrainian-American occasions in Huntsville and Birmingham to rejoice Ukraine’s Independence Day.
“The extra Ukrainians I meet, the extra I perceive why Alex fell in love with the individuals and the place when he received there,” Bunny Drueke mentioned. “They love freedom the identical means we do in America.”
The households’ assertion didn’t present any particulars in regards to the males’s present standing.
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