Third American volunteer fighter reported missing in Ukraine

Retired Marine Capt. Grady Kurpasi has been identified as the third American volunteer fighter missing in Ukraine.

That's according to ABC News, Ukrinform reports.

Kurpasi's wife Soohee Kim said she last heard from him in late April. He left Wilmington, North Carolina, on March 7 bound for Ukraine, but did not know how long he would be there, she said.

George Heath, a family friend of Kurpasi's told CNN that Kurpasi served in the US Marine Corps for 20 years, retiring in November 2021.

Kurpasi arrived in Ukraine on March 7 and made it to Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, on March 21, Heath said. According to him, Kurpasi and other members of the foreign legion were tasked to man an observation post at the end of April near Kherson, around the time Kurpasi stopped communicating with his wife and friends back in the US, Heath said.

Kurpasi and foreign legion troops manning the post at the time started "receiving small arms fire" on April 26, Heath said, meaning they were getting shot at. Kurpasi and the other soldier "went to go investigate what was happening," so they left the observation post, Heath said.

Kurpasi then radioed to Ukrainian military to start firing back and "that was the last time anyone heard from him," said Heath, who has reconstructed the account from other foreign legion members he's spoken with in the weeks since Kurpasi has gone missing.

The State Department told Kim that Kurpasi was missing in action on April 28, Heath said. The reason he has been identified as missing in action is because his body has not been found or identified, he added.

Earlier, media outlets reported the disappearance of Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, Alabama. They had been fighting alongside Ukrainian forces north of Kharkiv. There are fears that they may have been captured by Russia's forces. There was even a photo of both Americans in the back of a Russian military vehicle, but there is no information when the photo was taken.