“We know that they are speaking, they are breathing, they are ambulatory, and they sound like themselves,” Darla Black, the mother of Huynh’s fiancée, told CNN on Friday.
On Saturday, the two men arrived at the airport in Birmingham, Alabama, and were reunited with family and friends. Drueke hugged his aunt, Dianna Shaw, while Huynh hugged Black.
Drueke told CNN he was “very happy” to be home.
“I have your son standing right next to me,” Bunny Drueke recalled a woman from the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia telling her.
The families did not know the prisoner exchange was in the works.
“My mind just couldn’t comprehend it because there had been no warning. It just came out of the blue,” Drueke’s mother told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Huynh’s fianceé, Joy Black, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that Huynh requested spaghetti with meat — a meal he had been craving since being in Ukraine — as soon as he returns to Alabama.
Even after being captured, their families say the men had said they have no regrets about going over to fight with the Ukrainians.
“Alex told me emphatically no, no regret,” Drueke’s aunt told CNN. “They really want people to understand that Ukraine needs our support. They need the support of all democratic nations. They need democracies to come together and push (Russian President Vladimir) Putin back.”
“The United States will never recognize Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine. Russia’s referenda are a sham — a false pretext to try to annex parts of Ukraine by force in flagrant violation of international law, including the United Nations Charter,” Biden said in a statement.
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
CNN’s Shawna Mizelle, Sam Fossum and Andrea Cambron contributed to this report.
