The American who joined the Communist DPR and fought for Russia against Ukraine

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Bentley was born in 1960 in Austin, growing up in Highland Park, Texas until he was eight. Bentley began reading leftist literature as a teenager and at this time he became a socialist. At 16, he attended high school for one semester before dropping out. Bentley later got his GED, and at age 20, was convinced by his father to join the U.S. Army.

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By 2014, Bentley was working as an arborist in Round Rock, Texas.[8] Bentley left his life in the United States, including a relationship with a yoga instructor, to join pro-Russian forces in Donetsk in Ukraine, motivated by a desire to combat Ukrainian forces.[7] He arrived in Donetsk on December 7, 2014.[4] He utilized crowdfunding platforms to finance his involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war, setting up a GoFundMe campaign to finance his move to the Donbas on a self-described "Fact Finding Mission to Donbass".[9] During his time he nicknamed himself "Texas," described by Benoît Vitkine of Le Monde as a "nom de guerre".[10] He was also known as the "Donbass Cowboy," with the word "Donbas" written with the Russian orthography instead of the Ukrainian one.

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According to the local police and his wife, Bentley went missing on April 8, 2024.[12] His wife reported he had been detained by unidentified Russian military personnel.[3] The Vostok Battalion confirmed his death on April 19, 2024, via social media.[13][3] Alexander Khodakovsky, one of the leaders of the self-proclaimed DPR, demanded in his telegram channel that “those who killed Russell Bentley” be punished, but later deleted this message.[14][15][16][17][excessive citations]

According to Stephen Hall, a researcher on Russian affairs at the University of Bath, the "most likely scenario is that [Bentley] was killed by Russian soldiers who mistook him for an American spy."[18] Al Jazeera 360 documented Bentley’s story in A Diary of a Fighter.[19]

In September 2024, four Russian servicemen, Vitaly Vasnyatsky, Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin and Andrey Yordanov, were charged with abuse of authority resulting in Bentley's death (article 286 of Criminal Code), desecration of his body (article 244) and concealment of crimes (article 33 and 316). The Investigative Committee of Russia found that Agaltsev and Yordanov killed Bentley on 8 April, placed his body in a vehicle which was subsequently blown up in an attempt to cover up the murder, then moved his remains to "another location" with the assistance of the other two soldiers.[20] The suspects were said to be members of the Russian Army's 5th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade based in Donetsk Oblast and under the command of Major General Pavel Klimenko.[21]

In September 2024, Newsweek wrote about Bentley, revealing more details of his death. Bentley was supposedly misidentified as a "spy", however many say that the Russian unit knew exactly who he was. He was reportedly taken to a cave and tortured to death, before being put in a car which was detonated with explosives.

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