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AUGUST 2025 يوم متبقٍ

Could US Citizens Captured In Ukraine Be Exchanged

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Could US Citizens Captured In Ukraine Be Exchanged

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This week SouthFront published the appeals and stories of US mercenaries Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, who were captured in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine in June 2022. LINK, LINK

At the same time, the US media began to raise the question of what are the options of returning US citizens to their homeland. Apparently, given all the circumstances of Alexander Drueke’s and Andy Huynh’s detention, this is only possible through an exchange procedure.

US officials say they are in constant contact with their Ukrainian counterparts and are making every effort to include the mercenaries on the exchange list. Previously, the warring sides had already exchanged prisoners of war on several occasions. However, from the point of view of Russia and the DPR, these individuals do not have the status of prisoners of war because they are citizens of a third country who took part in the conflict for fees. In other words, they are considered criminals who are accused of committing a number of crimes against citizens of Russia and the DPR.

 

In particular, they have been charged under Article 430 of the DPR Criminal Code. This article is identical to Article 359 of the Russian Criminal Code.

Under Article 430 of the Criminal Code of the DPR and Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a mercenary is a person acting for the purpose of material reward who is not a citizen of a state participating in an armed conflict or hostilities, does not reside permanently in its territory, and has not been sent to perform official duties.

An important fact is that legal actions against detainees are carried out by DPR law enforcement agencies, not Russians. Apparently, this is due to the fact that in July 2022, the DPR authorities lifted the ban on the death penalty as a capital punishment. Previously, the other 3 foreign mercenaries (Shaun Pinner, Aidan Aslin, and Saadoun Brahim) had already been sentenced to death and are awaiting execution. The only chance for these convicts to stay alive was the act of pardon by the head of the DPR, Denis Pushylin.

Could US Citizens Captured In Ukraine Be Exchanged

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It is likely that a similar sentence will be passed on Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh.

An exchange of mercenaries for DPR or Russian military personnel seems hardly probable due to their legal status. Does this mean that the Americans’ fate is sealed? Definitely not. There are procedures of political exchange of convicts, which have happened many times before between the USA and the Russian Federation (USSR). The last case took place on April 27, 2022, when US citizen Trevor Raudi Reed, who had been previously convicted in the Russian Federation, was exchanged for Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been convicted in the US. Legally, the procedure was formalised through acts of pardon.

Thus, it is possible for US citizens to avoid the death penalty and return home. There are about 400 Russian nationals in US prisons, a significant part of whom are convicted on political grounds. Perhaps the most striking example is Viktor Bout, who has already served half of his sentence in a US prison.

However, there are several pitfalls to the political dialogue on prisoner exchanges.

Firstly, there are not even indirect contacts between the US and the DPR. It is hard to imagine that Washington will go for even unofficial contacts with Donetsk for the sake of individual citizens, as this would mean recognizing the DPR as an actor in international relations.

Contacts along the US-Ukrainian-Russian-DPR line appear to be of little use. As written above, Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh do not have POW status. An exchange would be possible through the Ukrainian side if the POWs were officially members of the US army, were in Ukraine as instructors under a US-Ukrainian agreement and of course were not directly involved in hostilities. The latter condition is mandatory, as the US does not recognise itself as a party to the Ukrainian conflict.

This leaves the US-Russia-DPR channel as the most effective. On this path, the main obstacle will be the public opinion of the DPR residents. During 8 years of Kiev aggression, almost every inhabitant of the republic has lost their relatives or close ones. People in the DPR are eager for revenge. In order for the exchange to take place, the leadership of the republic will need very convincing arguments as to why foreign mercenaries sentenced to death or long prison terms have been pardoned and handed over to the Russian side for further exchange.

However, there are signals that Russia and part of the DPR leadership are still open to talks with the US. The success of the talks will entirely depend on the political will of Washington. On what price the American establishment is ready to pay to demonstrate to its population its commitment to the principle of protecting its citizens abroad in every possible way. For now, unfortunately for the captives, Biden has not thought of anything better to do than to announce some kind of new sanctions against those involved in holding US citizens captive. How the “sanctions” are supposed to help the Americans return home, the oldest US president did not say. The situation is also complicated by the emerging information that US official structures, in particular USAID through intermediaries, are behind the recruitment and organization of US mercenaries trafficking into Ukraine.

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