Russell Bentley: Pro-Russia fighter from Texas disappears in Donetsk
Al Jazeera
Some Russians say Bentley has been killed and call for ‘revenge’, while his wife claims he was abducted by Russian troops.
A US fighter named Russell Bentley who fought with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine has been killed in occupied Donetsk, media reports say.
Earlier this month, Russian authorities reported that the 64-year-old citizen of the United States and Russia had gone missing.
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russia Today news channel and a close confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on April 19 that Bentley, known as “Texas”, died in Donetsk fighting “for our people”, in an announcement made on X.
Meanwhile, the Vostok Batallion, of which Bentley was a member, carried on Telegram a statement forwarded by the deputy head of the Russian Guard in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Khodakovsky, saying that “those who killed Russell Bentley” be dealt with “exemplary punishment”.
The new digital platform Al Jazeera 360 has documented Bentley’s story in a soon-to-air film, A Diary of a Fighter, tracing his journey, transformations, and reasons for choosing to fight alongside Russian forces.
