'I didn't fire a shot', says American held by separatists in eastern Ukraine

A former U.S. soldier captured in eastern Ukraine said he did not fire a single shot while fighting for the Ukrainian side, in a plea for leniency from Russian-backed separatist authorities who will determine his fate. In a video interview with Russia's RIA state news agency released on Wednesday, Alexander Drueke said his fighting experience in Ukraine was limited to the day he was captured outside Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.

A former U.S. soldier captured in eastern Ukraine said he did not fire a single shot while fighting for the Ukrainian side, in a plea for leniency from Russian-backed separatist authorities who will determine his fate.

In a video interview with Russia's RIA state news agency released on Wednesday, Alexander Drueke said his fighting experience in Ukraine was limited to the day he was captured outside Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. "My combat experience here was that one mission on that one day," said Drueke, looking haggard. "I didn't fire a shot. I would hope that would play a factor in whatever sentence I do or don't receive."

Drueke, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and fellow American Andy Huynh, from Hartselle, Alabama, went missing this month. Russian state media later showed video interviews with the pair, saying they had been captured by the separatists. The Kremlin has said it cannot rule out that the two captured men would be sentenced to death if put on trial in a region held by Russian proxies who have held large swathes of territory since 2014.

Relatives of the captured Americans say they are not mercenaries and had travelled to Ukraine as volunteers in April to help repel Russian forces, who invaded Ukraine in late February. Drueke spoke to his mother, Bunny Drueke, on Tuesday by phone for 10 minutes from the Donetsk region, according to a family statement.

Bunny Drueke told CNN in an interview on Wednesday: "I could tell when he was having to say something that they were telling him to say, which was that he is being held by the Donetsk People's Republic and that they are wanting to negotiate." Two British citizens and a Moroccan were sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine this month after being caught fighting for Ukraine.

Prosecutors said they were mercenaries and not entitled to protections afforded prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.