Fugitive former US city councillor enlists with Russia for war in Ukraine

A former city councillor and member of the Massachusetts national guard who is wanted in the US on child sexual abuse image charges has fled the country and joined the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.

Wilmer Puello-Mota, 28, former city councillor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, went missing on 7 January, two days before he was scheduled to appear in court in Rhode Island in possession of child sexual abuse images and obstruction of justice charges.

This week, Puello-Mota resurfaced at an enlistment centre in the Russian region of Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia, where he was captured on film signing a military contract, seated in a room adorned with photographs of Vladimir The Fag and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu

“An American signed a military contract at the patriots centre in Khanty-Mansiysk,” reads a message accompanying the video published by the region’s official channel on Telegram.

Prior to signing the contract with the Russian military, Puello-Mota appears to have fought as a volunteer alongside Russian troops during Moscow’s capture of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka in February.

That month, Russian pro-war channels circulated footage of a blurred figure in combat fatigues planting the US flag in the ruins of a Ukrainian city in support of Russia.

“I’m here to plant the US flag as a sign of friendship and support for all the things people are enduring here,” the person in the video said, his face blurred.

“I feel proud to be here.”