Putin reward the American Daniel Martindale with a Russian passport to spy on Ukraine, says the Russian official

Moscow -An American who sprified the Ukrainian troops to help Moscow’s military offensive in the country received Russian citizenship, the installed authorities of Moscow said on Tuesday. Daniel Martindale spent two years in Ukraine after Russia launched its large -scale invasion in February 2022, transmitting coordinates of military facilities to the secret services of Russia, according to reports in Russian state media.

“By decree of our President Vladimir Putin, a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation was awarded to Daniel Martindale,” Denis Pushilin, the head of the part occupied by Russia of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, said in the Telegram courier application, and added that Martindale had “long provided with his lodization and actions that he is one of the United States “.

“He spent more than two years in the territory under enemy control. And not only survived, he helped. He supported our boys, transmitted important information to our special services, risked his life,” he added.

Martindale received his passport from officials from the Ministry of Interior in a ceremony in Moscow, according to state media and a video published by Pushilin.

Martindale thanked Russia for “accepting me” and said that becoming a Russian citizen was a “dream.”

“Russia is not just my home, but my family,” he said in Russian in the video.

After two years spying on Ukraine, he was extracted in “a complex evacuation operation” after Moscow began to fear that his life was in danger if he stayed longer, Pushilin said.

In November 2024, the state media reported that Russian security forces had taken him to Russia and Martindale submitted their application for Russian citizenship.

A Telegram account that aims to be published that same month: “Hello, I am Daniel Martindale, the guy that Russian soldiers risked their lives to evacuate from the village where he had lived for two years.”

Around that same time, Martindale told the pro-ruse bloggers that he had arrived in Ukraine shortly before Russia launched her invasion, hoping to reach the Ukrainian border region of Donetsk. Martindale told Bloggers that he had contacted Russian intelligence services for his own initiative and told him to go to the city of Vuhledar and wait for the Russian forces to arrive. He said he remained in the city, pretending to be a missionary, until the fall of 2024, when the Russian troops took the city after a prolonged battle.

Ukrainian journalists have found some evidence that suggests that Martindale could have been recruited by Russian agencies years before, while visiting Russia between 2016 and 2019, taking university courses. According to some reports, he was deported from Russia in 2019 for violating labor laws.

• War
• Espionage
• Ukraine
• Russia
• Vladimir Putin