By Lucy Papachristou
(Reuters) -Daniel Martindale, a U.S. citizen who helped the Kremlin target Ukrainian troops and was then spirited out of eastern Ukraine by Russian special forces, has received a Russian passport in Moscow.
Russian state television broadcast a report on Tuesday showing Martindale, with a trim beard and dressed in a suit and tie, smiling as he received his new documents.
“I, Daniel Richard Martindale, voluntarily and consciously accepting the citizenship of the Russian Federation, swear to observe the Constitution,” he said in good Russian.
“The belief that Russia is not just my home, but also my family – I am extremely glad that this is not only in my heart, but also by law,” Martindale told television cameras, holding up the Russian passport. State media said Martindale had been granted the passport by order of President Vladimir Putin.
Reuters was unable to reach Martindale. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department declined to comment.
A self-described Christian missionary, Martindale is one of many foreigners who have supported Russia during its war against Ukraine. But few foreigners are known to have provided key logistical support to Russia from inside Ukraine.
Martindale grew to love Russia when he lived there in 2018, studying the language and teaching English in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok.
Now in his early 30s, Martindale was living in Poland in the months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He had a sense that Russia would invade Ukraine, he later told InfoDefense, a pro-Russian media project, and wanted to be there when it happened.
Martindale hopped on a bicycle and rode from Poland across the Ukrainian border that February.
He was in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv when Russia launched its attack.
“It was actually kind of exciting,” he told InfoDefense in May. “I understood that the adventure I had been looking forward to was not going to be cancelled.”
Over the next two years, Martindale made his way to eastern Ukraine, where he lived in a Ukrainian-held village near the front line in the Donetsk region.
RESPECT AND GRATITUDE
He planted carrots, sweet potatoes, and corn in his yard, and celebrated birthdays and holidays with villagers, he later told the Wall Street Journal.
Secretly, Martindale was passing along information to pro-Russian troops, including details on Ukrainian military positions and other intelligence.
On Tuesday, Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the Russian-controlled part of Donetsk region, praised Martindale, saying some of the information he had shared formed the basis for Russian planning to seize Kurakhove, a town near the key Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
After two years of working as an informant for Russia, Martindale was spirited out of Ukraine by Russian forces as they took control of the village where he lived.
At a press conference in Moscow last November, Martindale told reporters he had established contact with pro-Russian forces via Telegram.
“For the last two years, I have done everything to save the lives of Russian soldiers and ensure some kind of future for Russians in Ukraine. I would like to continue doing this,” he said.
On Tuesday, Pushilin expressed gratitude to Martindale for his role in Russia’s successes on the battlefield.
The American “has long since proven with his loyalty and actions that he is one of us,” Pushilin said.
“For us, this (the Russian passport) is a sign of respect and a sign of gratitude for what Daniel has done.”
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Rod Nickel)
