Pro-Putin Texas man, 63, goes missing in occupied eastern Ukraine while fighting with Russian forces

An American who fought for pro-Putin forces in Ukraine has gone missing, say police in Russian-controlled Donetsk.

Russell Bentley, 63, who is married to a Russian woman and has a passport from his adopted country, disappeared after an attack by Kyiv forces, according to reports. He was last seen in Donetsk on April 8 before moving in an “unknown direction,” and his whereabouts are unclear.

He had gone to help victims, say reports. Known by his call sign ‘Texas,’ his height is given as almost 6ft, and he is described as having a “heavy build, grey eyes, short grey hair, [and an] oval face.”

Russell Bentley, 63, posing with Russian flags

“He was wearing a black T-shirt, moss camouflage pants, camouflage boots, and had a green bag with him,” said an appeal for information. Anti-Western Bentley also has “a tattoo in the form of an arrow on his shoulder.”

The controversial figure, born in Texas, was waiting with his wife Lyudmila at an administrative office in Donetsk when “they saw a huge column of smoke after a strike.” Russell reportedly rushed to help the locals and soon stopped communicating. His wife Lyudmila “became worried and went to the place herself,” but she failed to locate the former pot dealer.

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Russell Bentley, 63, in camo pants and wite shirt

Born Russell Bonner Bentley III, he has previously said: “I grew up in a very exclusive area of Dallas called Highland Park…It’s basically the Beverly Hills of Dallas.” He was the “black sheep” of his family and – as a teenager – was drawn to hard-left causes, he said.

“I was reading Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara,” he said. “I understood the Vietnamese were right to defend their land against foreign invaders, and that the United States was wrong,” he told Rolling Stone.

Russell Bentley, 63 pictured sitting uniforms

“I understood that Fidel and Che were right to overthrow the foreign masters that had turned Cuba into a casino and bordello.” Bentley has said: “I’m anti-racist. I’m anti-imperialist. I grew up supporting people’s rights to defend themselves.” His views neatly coincide with Putin’s.

Bentley has posted that he was “heading west with the Liberators of Ukraine. We may stop in Kyiv, we may stop on the English Channel. We may liberate the USA.” A visitor to Cuba, in 1999 he escaped from a minimum security US facility where he was being held for drug trafficking.

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Russell Bentley, 63 sitting in a camo jacket with a gun

“I didn’t have to dig a tunnel or take anybody hostage,” he said. “But I did escape from prison.” He was later captured and put in a high-security facility to finish his sentence. After breaking up with his yoga instructor girlfriend, he became a fighter for pro-Putin forces in 2014, though he spoke almost no Russian.

He sympathized with the Russian rather than Ukrainian side. “I was on the little guys’ side, defending good people against abjectly evil people,” he said. He has lived in Donbas—Russian-occupied Ukraine—ever since. He now calls himself an information warrior and worked for a media outlet affiliated with Sputnik, a Russian state media outlet.

He converted to Orthodox Christianity and had a church wedding with his wife, Lyudmila, an English language teacher. He took the Russian name Boris, says reports. Bentley told Rolling Stone: “This is the battle, not just of Ukraine. This is the battle between good and evil for the future of the world. And right now, it’s looking like the world might just have a chance because us and our friends are kicking some Nazi ass right now.”