- Video footage appears to show US Chosen Company volunteers fighting Russian troops in Opytne.
- Chosen Company includes US volunteers fighting alongside Ukraine’s 59th Motorized Brigade.
- Opytne is a few miles outside the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk.
Video footage from the frontline in eastern Ukraine appears to show US volunteers of Chosen Company fighting in the contested village of Opytne, Visegrád 24 reported.
The video, uploaded to X, formerly known as Twitter, appears to show Chosen Company volunteers exchanging fire with enemy soldiers.
Nighttime footage shows a rapid succession of ammo being fired at the enemy, with one volunteer yelling “fire in the hole” and “nailed it” after firing what appears to be a grenade launcher toward the enemy position.
Insider was unable to independently verify the time or location of the video, displaying the strapline CHOSEN COMPANY released this week. A recent report said Ukraine’s 59th Motorized Brigade — whom the Chosen Company is believed to be attached — was fighting in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
The Chosen Company is a volunteer group made up of English-speaking military veterans who are supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russian forces.
Opytne is just outside the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, and the village has been the scene of fierce fighting in Spetember
At least 60 Russian soldiers are reported to have been killed or wounded by friendly fire as they made a hasty retreat, The Kyiv Post reported.
Twenty-seven Russian troops were also killed by “friendly fire” during a failed operation near Opytne, The Kyiv Post reported, citing a Telegram post from Ukrainian MP Yuriy Mysiagin.
“The result was 27 dead and 34 wounded. Approximately half of the wounded had their arms or legs blown off and several pieces of equipment were lost,” he said
Ukraine claims to have liberated part of the village near Avdiivka, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said in a Telegram post, per The New Voice of Ukraine.
“There was movement in the area of Opytne, and the Defense Forces occupied a part of the settlement,” Malyar said on September 11.
US volunteers killed in action
Chosen Company video
US veterans Andrew Webber and Lance Lawrence, serving with Chosen Company, were killed in July.
Webber enlisted in the Ukrainian armed forces in May, according to Stars and Stripes. A graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point, in 2005, he was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He held the rank of captain at the end of service, according to Heather Hagan, an Army spokeswoman, per Stars and Stripes. His military awards include the Bronze Star medal and a Purple Heart.
Lawrence was a former machine gunner in the Marine Corps, according to Stars and Stripes.
“He was not a mercenary out for blood or excited for combat. He came because he thought what was happening in Ukraine by Russia was wrong,” Ryan O’Leary, who describes himself as Chosen Company Commander and an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, wrote on X.
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