In recent weeks, the Russian propaganda media have revealed the story of a US citizen, Daniel Martindale, who, according to RIA Novosti and Kommersant, spent two years in Ukraine, providing information about the positions of the Ukrainian army.
Martindale himself claims that his goal was to “save the lives of Russian soldiers and ensure the future of Russians in Ukraine.” Currently, as he reported in an interview for “The Wall Street Journal”, lives in Moscow under the strict protection of the Russian special services.
A long road to Russia
From the accounts of Martindale’s family and materials collected by the editorial office of “Агентство” shows that the American came into contact with the extreme views of his parents as a child. Born in 1991, he grew up in a family of farmers in the states of New York and Indiana.
Opinion “The Wall Street Journal”, his parents developed a distrust of the US authorities in him from an early age, which strongly influenced Daniel’s future worldview. In 2001, the Martindale family left for China with the intention of conducting a religious mission. There they met people introducing themselves as former soldiers of Russian military intelligence, who then invited them to the Russian Far East.
They were supposed to show abandoned kolkhozes and talk about “supporting Christian values” in Russia. From that moment on, according to Jim Martindale, Daniel’s father, his son began to seriously dream of moving to the Russian Federation.
Travels to Russia, stay in Poland and deportation
An analysis of Daniel’s social media profile indicates that he first visited Russia in the mid-2000s. Journalists „Агентства” and portal vot-tak.tv they found photos and entries confirming that Martindale was in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and even Magadan. In 2018, he moved to Vladivostok for a longer period of time, but a violation of migration regulations led to his deportation.
After an unsuccessful attempt to enter Belarus in 2020, Martindale – According to the portal “vot-tak.tv„ – lived in Poland for at least a few months. He left traces there in social media and sports activity monitoring applications (e.g. Strava), where he recorded his runs in Krakow and nearby towns in southern Polish. His LinkedIn profile contains Polish mobile phone numbers.
Departure to Ukraine and contact with Russian services
In February 2022, shortly before Russia launched its invasion, Martindale traveled to Ukraine. According to his own words, quoted by “WSJ”, he decided to do so because he “wanted to be on Russia’s side if World War III broke out”. At the same time, he mentioned that he had planned to enter the territory of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic before the start of military operations.
Martindale settled in the village of Bohoyavlenka near Donetsk. Officially, he introduced himself as a missionary and was involved in work for the local people (m.in. he helped with collecting wood and repairing roofs). According to the American himself, he quickly aroused the suspicions of the residents and even one of the soldiers of the Ukrainian army, but – as he claims – the locals stood up for him.
In an interview for RT and quoted by “Kommersant” Martindale admitted that he had made contact with Russian services via the Telegram messenger and regularly provided them with data on the position of Ukrainian troops. As noted by journalists Toronto Television, Daniel was also said to have maintained suspiciously close relations with a person who turned out to be Vladislav Yurievich Gniteev, probably a GRU officer with the rank of captain specializing in psychological operations.
He gave the coordinates of the Russian artillery
According to the information cited by the “The Wall Street Journal” and slavicsac.com, the American was to provide the Russians with precise coordinates of Ukrainian military installations, which in effect allowed them to carry out strikesartillery units.
Martindale boasted on social media that the Russian army came across a grocery store, in the basement of which, according to his information, Ukrainian soldiers were stationed, for m.in example, on his “bearing”. According to the American himself, up to 20 Ukrainian soldiers could have been killed or missing as a result of the shelling.
According to Russian services, Martindale helped in attacks on the vicinity of Ugledar, including the aforementioned Bohoyavlenka. Ukrainian sources, m.in. quoted by the portal freeradio.com.ua, consider Martindale to be an active collaborator of the Russians, who led to the deaths of many Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers involved in the defense.
Evacuation and “surveillance” in Moscow
In the fall of 2024, when the population in Bohoyavlenka began to be evacuated due to intense fighting, Martindale was still there. According to “He spied in Ukraine for Russia, and now he admitted that he lives in Moscow under the supervision of special services”, was “discovered” by Russian troops and evacuated to the territories controlled by the Kremlin.
Later he was transported to Moscow, where – according to his own words, passed on to the “The Wall Street Journal” – today he lives ‘under strict supervision of special services, which tell him where he can go and where he cannot go’.
At a press conference at the headquarters of Russia Today (in the report “RIA Novosti” and Channel OneMartindale showed his damaged passport and claimed that he had asked the Russian authorities for political asylum. He assured that he “has long considered the United States an enemy” and wants to obtain Russian citizenship.
In the “WSJ” Martindale declares that he is “not a 100% free man”, but hopes that he will soon receive Russian documents and will be able to settle in the Far East to take up agriculture. The idea of living on a farm was to accompany him – as he claims – from the time of his first trips to Russia.
Many journalists who are looking into the case believe that Daniel Martindale’s activities may be part of a wider intelligence network, and the American himself was recruited several years ago. In turn, some Russian propagandists present him as a typical “missionary” who “became fascinated with Russian values”.
In Russia, Daniel Martindale has become a symbol of a Western citizen “ready to fight against his own state – in this case, the United States – in the name of “traditional values”. As the publications show “Агентstvo”, “The Wall Street Journal”, “RIA Novosti” whether “Kommersant”, in fact, the American’s motivations are much more complex, and his contacts with Russian services have a longer history.
Currently, Martindale declares that he wants to obtain political asylum and Russian citizenship, while admitting that he is under strict supervision in Moscow and does not have full freedom of movement. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, he is accused of passing on information leading to the death of Ukrainian soldiers.
His story – with numerous trips to Russia, a stay in Poland (described by vot-tak.tv), and then cooperation with Russian intelligence – shows how multidimensional the contemporary Russian-Ukrainian conflict can be and how surprising paths some Western citizens can choose to pursue their own – not always clear – goals.