Comment A US Air Force veteran living in Ukraine has been captured by pro-Russian separatists, his brother said – making him at least the third American captured in Ukraine since the war began. Supporting troops Russia took Swedi Murekezi, 35, into custody in the southern city of Kherson in early June and falsely accused him of taking part in pro-Ukraine protests, Sele Murekezi said on Saturday. Sele Murekezi said his brother called him last week and said he was being held in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, a separatist region in eastern Ukraine, along with two other captured Americans, Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh. A State Department spokesman said the agency was aware of “unconfirmed reports” that Swedi Murekezi had been arrested, but declined to comment further, citing “privacy considerations.” Swedi Murekezi, originally from Rwanda, moved to the United States as a teenager and served in the Air Force for eight years, his brother said. Suedi Murekezi moved to Ukraine in 2018 for the dynamic technology sector and later settled in Kherson, the administrative center of a region in southern Ukraine of the same name. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian troops after the invasion began. Sele Murekezi, who lives in Minnesota, said he had urged his brother to leave Ukraine before Russia invaded, but Suedi Murekezi resisted on principle and refused to leave his close friends there. On July 7, Sele Murekezi received a phone call from an unknown number. The operator handed the phone to Swedi Murekezi, who said he was being held and falsely accused of taking part in pro-Ukraine protests. He said he was not injured or tortured. “As best as we can tell, his only crime is that he’s American and that he’s black,” said Bryan Stern, the co-founder of Project Dynamo, a nonprofit that conducts rescue operations for those who are captured, detained or otherwise in need. . emptying in Afghanistan and Ukraine. Stern said that’s remarkable Swedi has not been charged as a mercenary, which he interprets as a sign that authorities are not accusing him of being part of the legion of international volunteers fighting for Ukraine. Ukrainian war volunteers are returning home, counting on a tough fight But the definition of “protest” is expansive in Russia’s separatist territories, Stern said. Actions likely to be taken considered harmless in many places around the world could to be considered in the DPR as “indiscipline”. As an example, Stern said he worked on a case in Ukraine where a foreigner was arrested for using the Ukrainian version of “thank you” instead of the Russian one. Sele Murekezi is not sure if he will believe that his brother is harmless. When he spoke to his brother in his native language on the phone call, Swedi Murekezi responded in English — causing Cele Murekezi to worry that someone was listening to the conversation. To Sele Murekezi, the brief exchange offered evidence that at least his brother is alive. He said he is in regular contact with the US embassy in Kyiv and hopes his brother will be released. “He has done his part for America,” said Sele Murekezi, “and maybe America can do something for him.” Stern told the Washington Post that in his experience, there are about three possible ways from here. The best-case scenario, Stern says, is “some kind of negotiated release — a negotiation between the different parties, usually through intermediaries.” A second – and less likely – scenario is “some sort of rescue operation”. Given Swedi Murekezi’s position in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a region controlled by pro-Russian separatists that essentially operates autonomously even from Moscow authorities, “that’s going to be very, very, very difficult” in this case, Stern said. . A third scenario is that Suedi Murekezi will face trial – where conviction and sentence in the DPR will be on the table, with possibly grim outcomes. The death penalty is allowed in the breakaway territory, unlike in Russia. “The problem … is that he’s been captured by a government that doesn’t really exist in the world,” Stern says. Alice Crites contributed to this report.
