Even after three months of captivity that included execution threats, bodily torture, solitary confinement and meals deprivation, it was the trip to freedom that just about broke Alex Drueke, a U.S. army veteran launched final week with 9 different prisoners who went to assist Ukraine combat off Russian invaders.
His palms have been certain. His head was lined by a plastic bag, and the packing tape holding it in place was secured so tightly it it brought on welts on his brow. Drueke mentioned he and fellow American prisoner Andy Huynh reached their restrict on this state through the transit, which occurred in a collection of autos from jap Ukraine to an airport in Russia that was surrounded by armed guards.
"For all we went via and all of the occasions we thought we would die, we accepted that we would die, we have been able to die when it got here, that trip was the one time that every of us independently prayed for demise simply to get it over with," Drueke informed The Related Press in an interview Friday.
"The psychological and emotional torture of these final 24 hours in captivity, that was the worst," he mentioned.
Drueke, 40, is therapeutic: The swelling goes down on his head and he is attempting to regain a few of the 30 kilos he figures he misplaced consuming a poor eating regimen. However terrible reminiscences stay, and he is not sure what comes subsequent apart from attempting to focus consideration on fellow prisoners who stay in Russian palms.
"The struggle has not ended," he mentioned, talking on the house he shares together with his mom and different relations in Tuscaloosa.
Drueke and Huynh, a 27-year-old fellow army veteran from Alabama, have been amongst lots of of Individuals who went to Ukraine early on to assist in the combat in opposition to Russia.
On June 9, they have been captured throughout what Drueke described as a reconnaissance mission related to Ukraine's worldwide legion, composed of overseas volunteers.
"Everybody else managed to make it again to the bottom secure," he mentioned.
Russian troopers took the 2 males to their camp, after which into Russia for "intensive interrogation," Drueke mentioned. Whereas declining to enter specifics, Drueke mentioned the remedy was brutal.
"Each considered one of our human rights have been violated," he mentioned. "We have been tortured."
The lads have been taken again to Ukraine to a "black website" in Donetsk for practically a month of further interrogation, he mentioned. They have been finally taken to an isolation cellblock inside a former Ukrainian jail. There, Drueke and Huynh have been pressured to report propaganda statements for a Russian video digicam with troopers within the room.
"On the optimistic facet, there have been occasions they might put us in a closet, certain and blindfolded, ... whereas they have been ready for no matter reporter to point out up, and it gave Andy and I only a few seconds to whisper issues forwards and backwards to test in on one another," he mentioned. "It was the primary time we had talked in weeks at that time."
Finally, after weeks of confinement that included a number of threats, it turned obvious that one thing — both a launch, a jail switch or execution — was within the works, mentioned Drueke, who joined the U.S. Military Reserve after the fear assaults of Sept. 11, 2001, and served two excursions in Iraq.
"We knew one thing was taking place as a result of our regular routine was being skewed and so they have been having us clear all of our private stuff out of the cell," he mentioned.
However even then, the psychological torture continued, he mentioned. "One of many guards mentioned a few occasions, 'I am fairly certain you guys are getting executed,'" he mentioned.
As a substitute, they have been a part of a bunch of 10 males who have been launched Sept. 21 in a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia. The others who have been launched with them have been from Croatia, Morocco, Sweden and the UK.
Nobody relaxed till the airplane was within the air and an official from Saudi Arabia defined what was taking place, he mentioned. Touchdown in New York after a flight from Saudi Arabia, Drueke mentioned he and Huynh have been met by a Homeland Safety official from an workplace that investigates struggle crimes.
Press aides with Homeland Safety did not instantly return an electronic mail in search of remark, however the U.N. human rights investigators have mentioned Ukrainian prisoners of struggle look like going through "systematic" mistreatment by Russian captors that features torture.