Russell Bentley, 64, reported killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk by Russian state media and confirmed by his battalion

Russell Bentley, 64, reported killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk by Russian state media and confirmed by his battalion

A US citizen known to have fought with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 has been killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, according to Russian media reports.

Russia-installed authorities in eastern Ukraine had earlier this month reported the American – 64-year-old Russell Bentley – as missing.

“Russell Bentley, known as ‘Texas’, a real American, truly from Texas, was killed in Donetsk,” Margarita Simonyan, head of the pro-Kremlin RT TV channel, said on social media.

  • Neuromancer@lemm.eeEnglish
    228·
    7 months ago

    I just mentioned him the other day. Appears Russian killed him thinking he was a spy.

      • Neuromancer@lemm.eeEnglish
        48·
        7 months ago

        He was just a dipshit. He was their Tokyo rose

        Early in the war the news showed a video of him. I don’t think he was fighting. He just narrated shit. What a stupid way to die.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      93·
      7 months ago

      That’s because anyone in Russia who isn’t a “pure” Russian is treated with suspicion and/or derision. This guy included.

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        6 months ago

        It’s a real police state. They make everyone a suspect and an informer.

        Do you report what you know, or wait for your neighbor to report you for not reporting what you knew?

        It’s Kafkaesque, and he came to a fitting end: “like a dog.”

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    4·
    7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    A US citizen known to have fought with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 has been killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, according to Russian media reports.

    Russia-installed authorities in eastern Ukraine had earlier this month reported the American – 64-year-old Russell Bentley – as missing.

    “Russell Bentley, known as ‘Texas’, a real American, truly from Texas, was killed in Donetsk,” Margarita Simonyan, head of the pro-Kremlin RT TV channel, said on social media.

    The “Vostok” battalion with which Bentley fought confirmed his death, calling for “exemplary punishment for those who killed Russell Bentley”, suggesting he did not die in a Ukrainian attack.

    On a Telegram channel previously run by him, Bentley’s wife, Lyudmila, said he had been “abducted” by Russian soldiers from a tank battalion, and called on them to let him go.

    The self-declared communist joined pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine to fight Kyiv in 2014.

    The original article contains 202 words, the summary contains 147 words. Saved 27%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.worldEnglish
    46·
    6 months ago

    A 64 year old American trying to run around on the Russian front lines with a gun? Yeah, I would probably think you were CIA as well.

    • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      The guy is literally a wannabe Stalinist Communist from Austin freaking Texas, he’s been there since 2014 fighting and propagandizing alongside the Russians this whole time, he’s apparently been an avowed socialist since he was 16, yet you’re trying to act like the CIA had anything to do with this fucking idiot.

      He was arrested over selling pot in the 90’s and started hating America and was too brainwashed, desperate, or mentally inept to realize that Russia was never really a communist country, especially not under Putin, and kept working with the Russians despite all the bad shit they do.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      161·
      7 months ago

      I suppose you also mourn the death of someone that kicks in a houses front door to rob/kill them even when the home owner kills the invader in self defense?