Russia frees 2 Americans who were captured while fighting for Ukraine and threatened with the death penalty

• Two Americans who were captured by Russia while fighting in Ukraine have been released.
• A representative for the men's families said they had been freed as part of a prisoner exchange.

Two Americans who were captured this summer while fighting in Ukraine have been released from captivity by Russia, a representative for their families said Wednesday.

The two men, Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, were detained in June while fighting in eastern Ukraine. Both are US military veterans from Alabama.

"We are thrilled to announce that Alex and Andy are free," Diana Shaw, Drueke's aunt, said in a statement, which was reported by CNN. "They are safely in the custody of the US embassy in Saudi Arabia and after medical checks and debriefing they will return to the states."

The men were reportedly part of a 10-person group released as part of a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.

Darla Black, the mother of Huynh's fiance, Joy, told CNN the release came as a total surprise. "It kind of knocked us off our feet," she said, "but this is the best outcome we could have asked for."

When the men first went missing in June, family members told Reuters that the pair had been motivated to fight against what they saw as an unjust invasion.

"When Andy saw this footage coming out of Ukraine he said he couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, was just consumed by the horror that these innocent civilians were going through," Joy Black said at the time.

Drueke's mother, Lois, said that her son likewise "wanted a purpose to his life and he felt that this was good and noble."

According to Reuters, the men had been detained in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, a separatist region in eastern Ukraine where they were paraded before Russia state television cameras and claimed, under suspected coercion, to have changed their opinions on the war.

At the time, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the men could face the death penalty. "We can't rule anything out, because these are court decisions," he said.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Also released Wednesday were several British prisoners of war, according to Robert Jenrick, a Conservative MP who posted on Twitter that he is "deeply grateful for the work undertaken by the Ukrainian government, the Saudi Crown Prince" and the British government.

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