A U.S. citizen known to have fought against pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 was killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, according to Russian media reports.
Russian authorities in eastern Ukraine reported the disappearance of 64-year-old American Russell Bentley earlier this month.
“Russell Bentley, known as ‘Texas’, a real American, truly from Texas, was killed in Donetsk,” said the pro-Kremlin RT TV channel Margarita Simonyan said on social media.
“He’s fighting for our people,” she said. Simonyan gave no details about how he died.
Bentley’s “Eastern” battalion confirmed his death and called for “severe punishment for those who killed Russell Bentley” and suggested that he did not die in the attack in Ukraine.
Donetsk police said on April 8 that Bentley disappeared after going to help victims of the Donetsk attack in Ukraine.
On the Telegram channel he previously ran, Bentley’s wife Lyudmila said Bentley had been “kidnapped” by Russian soldiers from a tank battalion and called on them to let him go.
In 2014, the self-proclaimed communist joined pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine against Kiev.
