A U. S. citizen killed in Ukraine, a U. S. State Department spokesman showed Friday. He was fighting alongside the Ukrainian military.
The U. S. official told CBS News that he can provide any other information about the deceased American, out of respect for the family’s privacy.
Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of Russia’s Primorsky Krai Far Eastern region, thousands of miles from Ukraine, said members of the “Tiger” army unit in his region killed the American in a battle.
“The American mercenary destroyed in Ukraine,” Kozhemyako said in a post Friday on his channel on the messaging app Telegram. The message was accompanied by images of a U. S. passport and a Ukrainian state-issued ID identifying the alleged U. S. victim.
Kozhemyako claimed that the man, whose identity has not been revealed through a circle of relatives or U. S. officials, died “in the first confrontation literally without delay after reaching the front line. “
The Russian politician claimed that the American killed when a “group of mercenaries from other countries” tried to settle in the Russian positions, but “the attack was repulsed, the positions were defended. “
He did specify where or when the fighting took place.
In the six months since Russia introduced its war against Ukraine, several American volunteers, mostly former U. S. military personnel, have been killed in the fighting.
In late July, the families of Luke Lucyszyn and Bryan Young showed CBS News that the men had been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The as-yet-unidentified guy whose death was shown Friday is at least the seventh American to die in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.