Videos suggest US volunteers fighting alongside Ukrainian forces

Footage circulating on social media purport to show American volunteers fighting alongside Ukraine

WASHINGTON:

An increasing number of videos are circulating on social media appearing to depict American volunteers fighting alongside Ukraine as it defends against Russia's assault. 

A series of videos were posted to Twitter beginning on Thursday by a man who identifies himself as James Vasquez that appear to depict him alongside Ukrainian troops. In one, he poses in front of what appears to be a Russian BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle, as someone shouts "welcome to America!" in the background.

This village has been Russian occupied for a month, they terrorized the people and took their food. Today we entered, took out 7 tanks and countless Russians thus liberating these people pic.twitter.com/0Fm3qHdepB

— James Vasquez (@jmvasquez1974) March 24, 2022

In a second video posted on Friday, Vazquez says the group he is fighting with destroyed seven Russian tanks "after a long firefight." Another video shows four destroyed Russian armored vehicles, including at least one tank. Men can be heard in the background yelling "Slava Ukraini!" or "Glory to Ukraine" in Ukrainian.

"Call that a good day," said Vazquez, whom multiple news outlets identified as a US Army veteran.

Another video posted by the Belarusian news outlet Nexta purportedly shows American volunteers and other fighters near Kyiv. In the footage, they take cover behind a wall as a building burns in the background.

"Another day in paradise," a narrator says. "Got my man right there, my commander, got the USA patch on his shoulder."

"We got mortars. We got rockets. We got all the fun stuff to make it a beautiful day," he adds.

It is unclear if the narrator in that video is the same person as Vasquez, though their voices are similar.

Russia began its war on Feb. 24. It has been met with international outrage, with the EU, US, and UK, among others, implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow.

At least 1,081 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,707 injured, according to UN estimates, while cautioning that the true figure is likely far higher.

More than 3.7 million Ukrainians have also fled to neighboring countries, with over 6.5 million more displaced inside the country, according to the UN refugee agency.