Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, of Trinity, Alabama, and Alexander Drueke, 39, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, haven’t been heard from for days after being in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, family members say.
Going to Ukraine was “not a decision he made lightly,” Huynh’s fiancée, Joy Black, told USA TODAY. “He’s got such a big heart and a lot of compassion for people in need.”
Huynh told her on June 8 that he would be unavailable for a few days. Black, 21, told USA TODAY she began to worry when she didn’t heard from him. She received a call on Monday from another soldier in his unit, saying the pair hadn’t met up at a rendezvous point during an operation. The caller told them other soldiers waited a day and conducted a drone search.
Whether they were captured isn’t known, said Black, whose family has since been in touch with the State Department and a Red Cross group in Ukraine that is also searching for the men. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about the men Thursday, said “we are working very hard to learn more.”
“We’re just hoping for good news,” Black said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Premier Mario Draghi arrived in Ukraine on Thursday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they prepare for a European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels next week and a June 29-30 NATO summit in Madrid. They were joined by President Klaus Iohannis of Romania, who came in separately.
