Editor\u2019s Note: This report contains details of death and injury that some may find distressing.<\/p>\n
The stark testimony of their surviving colleagues, and the growing toll, portrays the obscure yet important role of American frontline fighters in a war President Donald Trump has called \u201cridiculous\u201d and has pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin to end diplomatically. <\/p>\n
Two American volunteers were killed in a single incident just outside Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine in late September, according to survivors and relatives. Neither\u2019s body has been recovered. Former US soldier Zachary Ford, 25, from Missouri, and another American without military experience, whose family requested to be identified only by his callsign \u2018Gunther,\u2019 were killed by a drone while tasked with blowing up a bridge near the village of Novohrodivka. <\/p>\n
The surviving American, who asked to be known by his callsign \u2018Redneck,\u2019 described a mission with a limited chance of success, where the group of three US volunteers were swiftly trapped by Russian fire in a trench about 500 meters from their bridge target. <\/p>\n
Ford told his commanders on the radio they would abort the mission but was instructed to continue and that no evacuation was possible for another day, Redneck said. As the assault began, Redneck said he fired his machine gun at Russians directly in front of him, and that Ukrainians manning a grenade launcher and anti-tank Javelin weapon system died while holding back Russian armor. <\/p>\n
He said he stepped into a bunker to get ammunition, narrowly missing the drone strike that wounded Ford and Gunther. Ford\u2019s injuries required two tourniquets to stem the bleeding, Redneck said, which he applied before rejoining the defense and seeing a Ukrainian soldier fatally shot in the face in front of him. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew we weren\u2019t going to make it through another attack,\u201d said Redneck of Ford, \u201cso he started asking me to kill him so he wouldn\u2019t be captured.\u201d Redneck said he refused and told Ford they would find a way through this, before continuing to reload their weapons ahead of the anticipated assault. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe went really quiet,\u201d said Redneck of Ford. \u201cA couple minutes later, (he) called me over and said he had loosened his tourniquets.\u201d Redneck said he reapplied them, but Ford had lost too much blood. <\/p>\n
Redneck said Ford\u2019s last request was to see the sunlight as he died. \u201cI laid him down with his head towards the door, so he could look out, see the sun, and I just held his hand. The last really intelligible thing he said was, \u2018never let it be said that the bastards killed me.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Redneck said Ford had <\/strong>expressed a sentiment common among foreign fighters. <\/p>\n His most vivid memory of Ford was the tiny blue speaker he carried with him, on which he would constantly play the UK artist Artemas\u2019 song, \u201cI like the way you kiss me.\u201d \u201cHe always was playing music and dancing around that speaker,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n