Russell Bentley, 64, allegedly killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk through Russian state media and showed it through his battalion.
A U. S. citizen known to have fought alongside pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 has died in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, according to Russian media.
Russian authorities in eastern Ukraine reported earlier this month the disappearance of 64-year-old American Russell Bentley.
“Russell Bentley, known as ‘Texas,’ a real American, genuinely from Texas, killed in Donetsk,” Margarita Simonyan, director of the pro-Kremlin television channel RT, said on social media.
“He’s fighting for our guys,” she said. Simonyan did not give any major details about how he died.
The “Vostok” battalion with which Bentley fought showed his death, calling for “an exemplary punishment for those who killed Russell Bentley,” suggesting that he was not killed in a Ukrainian attack.
Donetsk police said on April 8 that Bentley had gone missing after going to rescue victims of a Ukrainian attack in Donetsk.
In a Telegram channel he ran earlier, Bentley’s wife, Lyudmila, said he had been “kidnapped” by Russian infantrymen from a tank battalion and asked them to let him go.
The self-proclaimed communist joined pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine to fight Kiev in 2014. He then worked for the Russian state news firm Sputnik and received Russian citizenship.