Daniel Martindale, an American who spent two years working with Russian military personnel from the Ukrainian rear, said he did not want to return to the United States but wanted to stay in Russia and obtain citizenship. The 33-year-old Martindale said this at a press conference in Moscow. Moreover, Martindale said that "this process is already in motion".
Describing the situation in the battlefield, Martindale said that Ukrainian soldiers are scared.
"In the last period of my stay in the village, I didn't meet any soldiers from the nationalist battalions. I only met soldiers who were fighting in territorial defense or units. And their opinion was that there's no good reason to be here. They were afraid. They just wanted to go home," he said.
Martindale Unveils Survival Story Under Grad Rocket Attack in Ukraine
While supplying Russia with intellegence, Daniel Martindale recalled what it was like to try and stay alive while being shelled.
“I guess we called them Grad rockets in English. I heard the noise that I understood that the rockets had been launched. And I had about three or four seconds to take cover,” Martindale reminisces.
“So, I laid down on the road hoping that that would provide some cover. My dog was with me. Sure enough, the rockets began to explode all around me. And one exploded about maybe 20 meters away and two fragments from the rocket hit my dog. But nothing hit me, thank God,” he added.
Daniel Martindale established contact with Russian law enforcement agencies and for the past two years reported coordinates of Ukrainian military targets that were used to hist infrastructure, equipment, and personnel of the Ukrainian armed forces. He was rescued from the combat zone and brought to Donetsk by Russian servicepeople.