US citizen Daniel Martindale, who, according to Russian media, spied on Ukrainian military forces and adjusted strikes on the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has been granted a Russian passport.
Reports state that he lived for two years in the village of Bohoyavlenka near Vuhledar, in a Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region.
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Martindale received the Russian passport by decree of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and the document was handed to him at the representative office of the so-called “DPR” (self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic) in Moscow.
“I, Daniel Richard Martindale, voluntarily and consciously accepting citizenship of the Russian Federation, swear to uphold the Constitution,” he said in Russian.
“The belief that Russia is not only my home but also my family – I am extremely happy that this is now not only in my heart, but also legally recognized,” Martindale told TV cameras while holding the Russian passport.
American Daniel Martindale has received Russian citizenship.
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 15, 2025
He had been spying for Russia for two years while located in the non-occupied part of Donetsk Oblast.
The recruited agent was passing coordinates of Ukrainian military targets to Russia. He was later extracted by… pic.twitter.com/3GCqULvBSS
Martindale, who is in his early 30s, first fell in love with Russia back in 2018, when he lived in Vladivostok — a Pacific port city where he taught English and studied Russian.
A few months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was living in Poland. However, as he later told the pro-Russian project InfoDefense, he had a sense that Russia would invade Ukraine and wanted to be there when it happened. In February 2022, Martindale crossed the Ukrainian border on a bicycle and arrived in Lviv, just as Russia launched its full-scale attack.
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“It was actually kind of exciting,” he told InfoDefense in May. “I understood that the adventure I had been looking forward to was not going to be canceled.”
On Tuesday, July 15, speaking in the studio of a Russian propaganda outlet, he said: “Learn Russian and read Russian news. Western news isn’t even worth opening.”
On Rick Sanchez’s show on RT, he said that he is proud of his Russian citizenship: “I’ve been striving for this for ten years.”
“At this moment, Washington is the greatest evil in the world,” Martindale said. “I really wanted to be in the DPR, to return to Russia, because I understood that a war was likely brewing – and that it would likely be between Russia and NATO. I was fully aware that if such a conflict broke out, I would want to be with the people who believe in the same things I do.”
The a**hole Daniel Martindale from Indiana (USA), who also put our team in danger when we distributed generators and stoves last October/November and whose real name we uncovered earlier this week, has now given an interview in Moscow. I wish him a delicious tea and always 10m… https://t.co/4vQhV6qjQp pic.twitter.com/DXue7iLfhN
— 📯Postmaster General Boomer 📯 (@MinisterBoomer) November 2, 2024
In November 2024, Russian authorities publicly revealed Martindale’s name and face, who, according to Russian media, had been spying on the Ukrainian army.
Journalists discovered that he lived in the village of Bohoyavlenka near Vuhledar for two years, posing as a missionary.
In comments to Russian propagandists, Martindale said he arrived in Ukraine shortly before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. He said he reached out to Russian intelligence services on his own initiative, and they advised him to go to Bohoyavlenka and wait for the arrival of Russian troops. In the fall of 2024, after the territory was occupied, he was evacuated to the rear.
Russian propagandists reported that the American repeatedly provided Russian intelligence with data to strike Ukrainian forces. Martindale himself admitted that he once directed a strike on a grocery store, where, according to him, there was a Ukrainian command post in the basement.
On Tuesday, Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-appointed leader of the occupied part of Donetsk region, publicly praised Martindale, stating that some of the information he had provided was used in planning Russia’s offensive on Kurakhove, a town near the strategically important Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
The American “has long since proven with his loyalty and actions that he is one of us,” Pushilin said.
“For us, this (the Russian passport) is a sign of respect and a sign of gratitude for what Daniel has done.”
As of the time of publication, Kyiv and Washington had not officially commented on the incident.
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