MOSCOW – An American who was spirited away by Russian special forces in eastern Ukraine after helping the Kremlin target Ukrainian troops said on Saturday he had sought Russian citizenship in Moscow.
“My name is Daniel Martindale,” he told a news conference, according to state media.
“This is my passport. It went through the war with me, I know what condition it is in,” he said, holding what appears to be a well-worn U.S. passport and birth certificate. He said this in English with a hand in his hand.
He said he was not coerced, wanted to obtain Russian citizenship and predicted Russia would win the war in Ukraine.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow had no immediate comment.
Martindale, who said he worked as a missionary, said he entered Ukraine from Poland in early 2022, days before President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into the country.
“I’ve wanted to go to Russia for a long time, and I realized that this is the moment I’ve been waiting for,” he was quoted as saying.
RIA state news agency cited unnamed Russian sources as saying Martindale had been providing the Russian military with information on the location of key infrastructure in Ukraine for two years.
Details of the information he provided to Russia were not disclosed.
Martindale said that while in Ukraine, he contacted pro-Russian factions via telegram, relaying information from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
Izvestia newspaper reported that the Russian military also used drones to deliver the phone to him.
“For the past two years, I have done everything to save the lives of Russian soldiers and guarantee some kind of future for Russians in Ukraine. I want to continue this work.”
