Captured American fighters purportedly held by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk

“We are in contact with Ukrainian authorities, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and with the families themselves,” they continued. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment on these cases.”

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Separately, a more than 50-minute edited video was published on Saturday of Drueke and Huynh being interviewed by HelmCast, a pro-Russian Serbian nationalist YouTube channel.

In the interview, a man can be heard behind the camera revealing the location of their interview when he says, “here in Donetsk” during a question to Drueke.

Drueke is also asked in the interview if he has any objections to how he has been treated since his capture and he reveals he has been beaten.

CNN is choosing not to broadcast the videos of US detainees because they show the men speaking under duress.

Concerning development

The location of Drueke and Huynh’s detention is a potentially concerning development. Russia has a moratorium on the death penalty, whereas Donetsk uses firing squads to execute condemned prisoners, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.

Hopes that a prisoner swap between Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists could free any foreign fighters detained in Donetsk appeared to have been dashed after Denis Pushilin, the self-proclaimed head of DPR, said such exchanges were out of the question.

“The exchange of the British men sentenced to death in the DPR is not under discussion, there are no grounds for pardoning them,” Pushilin told independent Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta on Thursday.

The Donetsk People’s Republic did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the detention of Drueke and Huynh.

Former serviceman describes battle

Speaking exclusively to CNN’s Sam Kiley, a former US serviceman fighting with Ukrainian forces recounted the battle he witnessed on June 9, when Huynh and Drueke were purportedly captured.

The man, who asked to be identified with the code name “Pip,” said his team was sent out on a mission east of Kharkiv where a full-scale Russian armored assault was underway.

Huynh and Drueke fired an RPG at a BMP — an infantry fighting vehicle — that was coming through the woods and destroyed it, according to Pip. But the team had to quickly withdraw as more than 100 Russian infantry began advancing and the American fighters found themselves in a village they previously thought was in Ukrainian hands.

When asked about what happened to Huynh and Drueke, Pip said that “we suspect they were knocked out by either the T-72 tank shooting at them or by the blast of the mine. This is only speculation, we don’t know what really happened to them.”

“There was about a hundred plus infantry advancing on our positions. We had a T-72 firing on people from 30, 40 meters away,” he said.

A photo of the two men emerged on Thursday with their hands tied behind them and in the back of a Russian truck. The undated photo was posted on Telegram on Thursday by a Russian blogger. CNN could not independently verify when the photo was taken.

Third American missing

The last time Heeson Kim and other close friends heard from Kurpasi was between April 23 and 24, George Heath, a family friend of Kurpasi’s told CNN. Kurpasi served in the US Marine Corps for 20 years, retiring in November 2021. He chose to volunteer alongside Ukrainians in Ukraine but initially did not envision himself fighting on the frontlines of the war, Heath said.

“We don’t know where they are, but I want to reiterate: Americans should not be going to Ukraine now,” Biden said in response to a question from CNN’s MJ Lee at the White House.