His aunt, Dianna Shaw, said the video included both a key word and a gesture that Drueke and his mother had set up during one of his two tours in Iraq so she would know that it was indeed him and that he was OK.
Drueke, who served in the U.S. Army, and Huynh, who served in the U.S. Marines, went missing after their group came under heavy fire in the northeastern Kharkiv region on June 9.
Russische Medien haben zwei in der ukrainischen Armee kämpfende und von moskautreuen Truppen gefangen genommene US-Soldaten vorgeführt.
Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, had been serving as volunteers with a regular Ukrainian army unit. They are believed to be the first US servicemen to end up as Russian prisoners of war.
They will join a growing number of Western military volunteers captured by Russian forces, including three Britons – Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Andrew Hill.