American-born Russell Bonner Bentley, call sign ‘Texas’, has been reported to be missing in the Donetsk oblast.
Bentley has been covering Russia’s special military operation zone as a war correspondent.
64 year-old ‘Texas’ joined the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) militia as a fighter in 2014, fighting foe the region’s freedom against Ukrainian forces, having later become a war correspondent.
He is feared to have been the latest journalist targeted for retaliation by Kiev’s services, like Daria Dugina, killed in a car bomb, Vladlem Tatarsky, killed with a ‘gift bomb’, or the American Gonzalo Lira, who dies in an Ukrainian cell after reportedly being denied medical attention.
Do conservative Americans even care? On the one hand, he is a communist – so it’s not like we’d be asking him for geopolitical tips or anything.
But on the other, at this point he was a non-combatant and a guy who really cares about that people and that land that he made his home.
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His work, whether we agreed with him or not, shone a light on the struggle of the Donbas people targeted by Kiev’s attacks for eight years.
Through his reporting, he put a human face in the Russian citizens of this contested region, allowing the public to go beyond Vladimir Putin’s figure and engage the actual human issues at play in this war theater.
Mash in Donbas reported (translated from the Russian):
“The police are looking for an American who disappeared after shelling in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk.
On Monday, Russell Bentley and his wife came to the executive committee to re-register documents. While we were standing in line, we saw a huge column of smoke after the arrival. Russell rushed to help the locals and soon stopped communicating. According to the wife, at that moment she became worried and went to the place herself.
‘There I found only my husband’s car, in which were his baseball cap, glasses and a broken phone. The investigator has already opened a missing person case – they are looking for Bentley. If you saw him or know anything, be sure to notify the police’.”
From Bentley’s Telegram channel (translated from the Russian):
“The media company “Russian Hour”, which recently made a film about Russell Bentley (call sign “Texas”), WILL PAY A REWARD to those who have reliable information about the whereabouts of “Texas”, who saw (and can describe in detail) or could film the arrest on their phone/ kidnapping of Russell Bentley in the Avtobaza area in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk on April 8, 2024 after 16:15 and/or knows about the location of Russell’s white Niva state. number M985AN 180, which was parked on April 8 after 16:15 at the Avtobaza public stop in the Petrovsky district in front of the “Products” stall.
ON APRIL 8 AT 15:30, RUSSELL AND MY WIFE ARRIVED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE IN THE PETROVSKY DISTRICT OF DONETSK FOR PERSONAL AFFAIRS AND FOUND UP CLOSE TO THE AREA OF SHEET FROM THE APU VEHICLE BASE AND THE ADJACENT PRIVATE SECTOR. RUSSELL DECIDED TO GO TO FIND OUT IF THE WOUNDED WOULD NEED HIS HELP. I COULD NOT BE ABLE TO GET IN CONTACT WITH HIM ANYMORE. THE SEARCH CONTINUES AND ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS DISAPPEARANCE IS IMPORTANT!!!”
The post American-Born Russel ‘Texas’ Bentley Is Missing in Donetsk – Pro-Russia Fighter Turned War Correspondent Feared Targeted by Ukrainian Services appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
