At least 20 Americans fighting in Ukraine are ignored – the difficult task of identifying and repatriation

More than 20 American citizens fighting on the side of Ukraine, in the war with Russia are missing, with their families struggling for their fate.

The corpses of at least five US volunteers ranked in the Ukrainian army could not be reunited from the battlefield after being killed in the battle for the past six months, CNN said. And two of them were repatriated by Russia’s occupied territories on Friday, after long negotiations.

The harsh testimonies of their surviving colleagues and the growing account of the dead depict the dark but important role of the American front line fighters in a war that President Donald Trump calls “ridiculous” and pushes Vladimir Putin.

Relatives of the missing Americans spoke to CNN about their suffering as they cannot bury their sons, they cannot officially declare their loved ones, and at the same time they are also attacked by Russian online trolls who harass them online.

As the fierce battles continue on the eastern front of Ukraine, the corpses of the dead soldiers on both sides cannot be gathered and lying on the battlefield.

Two US volunteers were killed in an incident just outside Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine in late September, according to survivors and relatives.

Stories

Neither of them has not been found. The former American soldier Ford jacques25 years old, from Missouri, and another American with no military experience, whose family asked to be recognized only with his distinctive “Gooder »were killed by an unmanned aircraft and had undertaken to blow up a bridge near the village of Novoharodivka.

An American survivor, called “Rentnek”, said that this mission had little chance of success as his team was trapped by Russian fire in a trench about 500 meters from the target of the bridge.

“Russian drones tried to get through the roof of the shelter … I had a shotgun and tried to break these things”, He said in an interview with the US network.

Ford told his commanders on the wireless that they would hate the mission, but was ordered to continue, as they might not have had such an opportunity again, Rentnek said.

When the attack began, he describes how he shot with his machine gun against Russians right in front of him and that Ukrainians who were manning a grenade launcher and an anti -tank javelin weapon system died while holding the Russian armor.

He then describes how he entered a shelter to get ammunition, and he was not marginally hit by the drone that injured Ford and Gooder. The injuries of the former demanded two hemostatic bandages to stop the bleeding, Rentnek said, noting that he helped the soldier and then saw a Ukrainian fired at his face.

A few minutes later, he heard Ford shouting: “Gooder is dead.”

“I went down to check, and the Ukrainian who was there, and just looked at me and said,”friend dead“. Ford was in stable condition and the commander warned them to the wireless that a new Russian attack was coming.

“He knew that we were not going to withstand another attack,” Rentnek said of Ford “so he asked me to kill him so he would not be arrested,” He claimed.

He says he denied it, and after a while the injured himself relaxed the bandages and lost a lot of blood. Then, he told him that he was his last desire to see the sunlight as he was dying.

“I lay with his head to the door so he could look out, see the sun, and just holding his hand. The latter really understandable thing he said was: “Never let the bastards say that the bastards killed me”.

Rentnek said Ford had expressed a feeling that was common among foreign fighters. His most vibrant memory by Ford was the tiny blue speaker he was carrying with him, in which he was constantly playing the song of British artist Artemas, “I like the way you kiss me”. “He always played music and danced around this speaker”he remembers.

He went on to say that the likelihood of the survival of foreign volunteer fighters on the front line depends on their level of experience, but also on the duties assigned to them by the brigades they are included.

While some officers gave to foreign and Ukrainian equal duties, he said, others ‘They will sell you and get killed just as fast’. Blamed for the losses in his brigade a “A bad officer … who didn’t see any difference between anyone. They were all meat for the mill and sent anyone who could find. “

“At this point, you can’t say it’s not America’s struggle” he said. Critics of war “They are trying to say that this is a problem of Ukraine. If we can make peace now, we will not have to deal with it. The truth is that he is not going to stop ‘, Rendnek added.

His team was removed from the area and later saw footage of drone with the corpses of Ford and Gooder. The area in which they are now fought is under Russian occupation.

The process of removing the dead from the front lines is painful and emotional.

Former American Marines, Corey Navroki, 41, from Pennsylvania, lost his life fighting in Bryansk, Russia in October. Pictures of his corpse have been posted by many Russian soldiers on the Telegram, and after complex negotiations he was one of the nearly 800 dead who returned to Ukraine Russia on Friday, as well as that of another missing American.

His mother cried as he described that he felt “A vortex of emotions – relief, but also sadness. A weight left my shoulder because now I don’t have to worry about what they can do there. “

Described Navroki as one veteran marine two decades With six terms in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, as one people who liked to make her laugh. He went to Ukraine because of the blood tax that the civilians saw. “Innocent people are killed, babies are slaughtered. I think that really bothered him »says the mother.

Navruki died of a shot while trying to help a wounded colleague, his mother said. Pictures of his body and weapons were widely shared on Russian social media and says that her address and video of her home were also posted on social media.

When he tried to inform his friends Marines on social media about his death, Philo -Russian trolls “published all these unpleasant comments and, smiling emoticons,” he said. She did not want her son to go to Ukraine but stressed that “This is a war of all of us. If Russia wins Ukraine, this affects Poland, it affects all European countries, “ he said.

The repatriation of dead Americans is the culmination of a complex and emotional journey for those involved.

How to identify victims – a difficult process

OR Lauren Guilleuman American living in Kyiv and works for the non -profit institution RT Weatherman Foundationhelps foreign families to find their loved ones, often looking for a funeral with Ukrainian Foundation researcher Irina Korosajeva.

Identification is possible through a combination of visual identification methods and DNA tests, Guilleum explained.

Ukrainian officials said the task of identifying the dead is more complicated when the relics are returned from the Russian side.

“After an exchange, we may be given a bag of 10 relics of bodies belonging to different people”said Artur Dobroderdov, Ukrainian Commissioner for the Missing Ministry of the Interior.

He himself confirmed that More than 20 Americans are ignored And he explained that they would send relics to families when they are absolutely sure of their identity as they would not want to bury their loved one and then receive more.

One of the first cases in which Guilleum was able to help was that of the US Army Veteran Central Ham, who was killed in the northern border area of ​​Sumos in March.

Ham’s family recognized him from tattoos, via livestreaming done by Guilleum from the morgue and his body was repatriated in December.

‘I’m very proud of my son’, His mother, Rakel Ham, said, who said he had been fighting in Ukraine as he wanted to use his military past to travel.

‘His temper, even to the end“She had impressed her, she said, describing how she was told that she” saved another young man “during the clash that killed him. “My expectation, honestly, was that my son would never be,” he said. “My son paid the supreme price on the battlefield for Ukrainian freedom and that will live with me forever. My child did not die in vain, “he continued.

‘He was selfless’said one of his comrades, an American fighter who was injured in the battle that killed Centric Ham, speaking to CNN from the US, where he is recovering.

Foreigners who fight on the front can be declared dead if someone confirms it or by examination of DNA in their relics, or through a court ruling, if there is significant evidence of their death. That means it takes time.

In March, the organization had 16 such casesand now deals with 88 dead or missing aliens 18 nationalities – half of which are Americans. ‘Most of them are cases of missing’, The leader mentions.

The real number of dead among US volunteers in Ukraine remains unclear, he points out.

She believes that the growing number of dead and missing is due to the fact that the foreigners sent to difficult areas her first -linewhere military experience is required. “We find that foreign operators fill the gaps of very difficult, high -risk and high reward business. Their lives and sacrifices do not go lost »says Guilleum.

Edited by: Anastasia Kitsikosta