The Tennessee Guard said in a statement, “They are counted, safe and not, as the title of the article erroneously suggests, American mercenaries killed in the Donetsk People’s Republic.”
The Russian newspaper Pravda identified the Americans by name and gave military ranks to each of them. [Getty]
Three current and former members of the Tennessee National Guard falsely identified in a Russian media report as mercenaries who were killed in Ukraine are in fact alive and well, the Tennessee National Guard said Thursday.
President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Ukraine ahead of Russia’s invasion of the country as part of a broader effort to avoid a direct confrontation with the nuclear-armed adversary.
But the report published in the Russian newspaper Pravda The newspaper identified the Americans by name and gave military ranks to each, citing reports from the pro-Russian Donetsk militia in Ukraine.
The report even offered a complex explanation of how the three were identified, using items from a backpack ‘near the remains of one of the militants’ – including a Tennessee state flag .
“The Tennessee Guard is aware of fake news from Russia,” said Tracy O’Grady, spokeswoman for the largest US National Guard.
The Tennessee Guard said in a statement, “They are counted, safe and not, as the title of the article erroneously suggests, American mercenaries killed in the Donetsk People’s Republic.”
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two of the men were still in the Tennessee National Guard and in Tennessee. The other man had left the service, but he was alive and not in Ukraine, the official said.
The National Guard speculated that the militia picked the three men when reviewing official footage associated with a 2018 deployment of the 278th Tennessee Armored Cavalry Regiment to Ukraine, suggesting all three were in Ukraine.
“All members of the Tennessee National Guard safely returned to their home state in 2019 after a successful mission,” he said.
Russia on Sunday attacked the main base where, before Biden’s withdrawal, the US military had long trained Ukrainian forces. It fired air-launched cruise missiles from Russian airspace at the Yavoriv International Center for Peacekeeping and Security.
The base is located just 25 km from the Polish border. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
(Reuters)
