Wanted former US airman appears as Russian soldier in propaganda video

A newly released Russian government propaganda video appears to feature an American former airman who says he’s now a drone operator fighting alongside Kremlin forces waging war in Ukraine.

In a public post Monday on the Russian Defense Ministry’s Telegram channel, a man calling himself Will from Massachusetts is shown wearing Russian military camouflage, a combat helmet and a plate carrier. At the end of the roughly five-minute clip, he says “victory will be ours” in Russian.

Photos from earlier U.S. military press releases and reporting by the Moscow Times identify him as Wilmer Puello-Mota, a former Massachusetts National Guard technical sergeant and city councilor, who is wanted in the United States on child pornography possession charges.

Speaking in English with Russian subtitles, he describes his background, mentioning his 10 years of service in the U.S. Air Force and two years as a city councilor in Holyoke, Mass.

Puello-Mota entered the Air Force on active duty in 2013. He later transferred to the Massachusetts National Guard in 2019, according to Air National Guard information.

Defense Department images from 2015 show Puello-Mota on his only deployment, as a member of the 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron guarding aircraft at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Tech. Sgt. Brandee Hahn, who supervised Puello-Mota as part of a flyaway security team during a deployment to Afghanistan that year, described Puello-Mota as a “very good airman.”

“I can recall a few times where him and another troop would talk a lot of politics about the war and everything back when we were still in Afghanistan,” Hahn told Stars and Stripes on Monday. “But I would have never imagined him doing any of this.”

Then-Airman 1st Class Wilmer Puello-Mota, left, and Staff Sgt. Brandee Hahn, members of a 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron flyaway security team, watch over a C130J-Super Hercules in 2015 at the former Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Puello-Mota, who later served in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, is wanted in the United States on child pornography charges. He fled to Russia and is featured in a new Kremlin propaganda video talking about fighting for Russia in Ukraine. (Cierra Presentado/U.S. Air Force)

Puello-Mota had been scheduled to appear in a Rhode Island court Jan. 5 to face a raft of charges including possession of child pornography dating to 2020.

Police in Warwick reported finding sexually explicit images of a 17-year-old on Puello-Mota’s phone in May 2020 after he reported that a gun and his wallet had been stolen from a hotel safe.

Prosecutors later filed additional charges against him including obstruction, forgery and counterfeiting.

They say that in May 2022, while serving as a security forces technical sergeant at Barnes Air National Guard Base, Puello-Mota had someone pose as his commander during a phone call with a prosecutor on the child pornography case, The Boston Globe reported in April.

He is also accused of forging a document to secure clearance for deployment with his former Guard unit, the 104th Fighter Wing, according to The Boston Globe’s report. 

On Jan. 7, he boarded a flight to Istanbul, according to the Globe.

Typically, the services take administrative actions after civilian criminal proceedings are concluded, but Puello-Mota was kicked out of the Air Force and had his security clearance revoked in October 2022 because of the severity of the charges, officials told Stars and Stripes. 

As in earlier videos appearing to feature Puello-Mota, the Russian Defense Ministry’s clip released Monday identifies him by his first name and omits any reference to the criminal charges he faces in the United States.

He says his “involvement in international politics” led him to travel to Moscow, where he eventually joined the Russian military, serving as a reconnaissance drone operator.

He also defends his actions, saying his decisions were motivated by his views rather than a betrayal of his country.

“I don’t consider myself a traitor,” he says. “The United States and Russia are not at war.”

The Russian Defense Ministry further identifies him as an “American with Russian citizenship” and a “former American citizen,” though it remains unclear whether he has formally renounced his U.S. citizenship.

Under U.S. law, joining a foreign military, particularly one engaged in hostilities against the U.S., may be considered an act of intent to relinquish citizenship, according to State Department information.

This video is the latest showing what appears to be Puello-Mota in Russian media. In April, footage appeared showing him, using the call sign Vil, signing documents at a military enlistment office in Siberia.

In an interview in April with the Moscow-based newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, he claimed to have participated in combat in the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka that February as part of the Pyatnashka Brigade, a unit reportedly composed mainly of international volunteers.

A Facebook page attributed to Will Puello features a photo of the Kremlin and indicates that he resides in Moscow. The page also states that he works at the Russian Defense Ministry.