Ukraine. Russell Bentley, nicknamed "Tex" on the battlefield, 61, travelled to Donetsk to "kill the Nazis," or Ukrainian militants, that set fire to a Trade Unions House where pro-Russian militants were sheltering in Odessa, Ukraine earlier that year.At the beginning of this month he went viral after sharing footage of himself on "the front line" with Russian troops marching through the Donbas.Bentley told Newsweek of his journey to the volatile region: "I had a great job, I had a great girlfriend, I had a great life.
I was comfortable. I made a thousand bucks a week cash, talking to people as a salesman. My girlfriend was a yoga instructor 20 years younger than me, bro.
No s***."Bentley, a US Army demolition specialist and combat engineer before being granted an honourable discharge, chased the action as he didn't want to feel like a "punk" and simply "write about how bad it was on Facebook.""You know what, I'm gonna go to Ukraine, and I'm going to kill the Nazis that did this, and I'm going to defend people, innocent civilians," he said.Once a "surfer, beach boy-type guy," he developed an interest in politics when he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.He rode his motorcycle to Dallas and had one last Thanksgiving with his family before selling the bike and flying to Moscow, then from Rostov to Donetsk in Ukraine.Within a week, he joined Vostok Battalion, a Russian militant group operating in the Donbas region.
He said he served with the Novorussian army in 2014, 2015 and 2017."If I told all the times that I came within seconds or inches of death, first of all, we'd be here all night, and second of all, you wouldn't even believe me," Bentley said.
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