A photo emerged on Thursday of two American fighters in the back of a Russian military truck apparently confirming they had been captured by Russian forces north of Kharkiv, Ukraine, last week.
The men are Alexander John-Robert Drueke, age 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, age 27, from Hartselle, Alabama. The photo shows the two men looking up at the camera with hands behind their backs as if bound.
The undated photo was posted on Telegram on Thursday by a Russian blogger, The V, whose full name is Timofey Vasilyev, from Moscow. CNN cannot verify when it was taken.
Bunny Drueke, the mother of one of the Americans reportedly captured, said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that the US State Department told her that they are working to verify the alleged photo.
“They said that there is a photograph that is being circulated on the Russian media. And they’re working hard to verify it,” said Bunny Drueke. “We’re very hopeful.”
Drueke said her son went to Ukraine to train soldiers there to fight against Russia because “he felt that if Putin wasn’t stopped now, he would just become bolder with every success, and that eventually he might end up on American shores.”
More background: The two Americans fighting alongside Ukrainian forces north of Kharkiv, in Ukraine, have been missing for nearly a week and there are fears they may have been captured by Russian forces, according to their families and a fellow fighter.
There is very little to identify the location of the vehicle but a white box of food with tin cans falling out has been identified by CNN’s Russia desk as being “mackerel with vegetables” made by Russian food producer Fregat.
CNN has reached out to Russia’s Ministry of Defense for comment.
