A Texas father who moved his family to Russia to escape "wokeness" and "LGBT indoctrination" is being sent to fight on the front line against Ukraine, his wife said.
Derek Huffman, his wife, DeAnna, and their three daughters, ages 10 to 12, moved to a small town outside Moscow earlier this year. The family has detailed their story on a YouTube channel.
In a now-deleted video, DeAnna said this month that her husband was deployed to the front line in Russia's war against Ukraine despite assurances from Russian officials that he would only serve in a noncombat role.
"He feels like he's being thrown to the wolves right now, and he's kind of having to lean on faith, and that's what we're all doing," she said.
The family's story is going viral on social media and international news outlets, with many people questioning why they would move to Russia.
Online records show Huffman lived in Humble, a suburb of Houston, before moving to Russia. Huffman and his wife did not respond to messages sent through the family's YouTube channel. Neither Huffman's parents nor siblings, who also live in Texas, responded to phone calls or text messages from The Dallas Morning News this week.
It is unclear exactly what role Huffman is serving in Russia's military. Tim Kirby, a travel blogger who founded the expat village where the family lives, told The News by email that Huffman is not fighting on the front line.
Kirby told Snopes.com on July 22 that Huffman was "doing the work that is in line with what he agreed to during his sign-up negotiations."
Huffman "was never involved in front line combat from what I understand and he is certainly not doing so now," Kirby told the website.
In a new video posted over the weekend, Huffman and his wife addressed the controversy and said they have received a flurry of negative messages. Huffman did not discuss whether he was fighting on the front line or where he was deployed, citing safety. He said he is doing what he thinks is right.
"The level of hate for Russia is insane," Huffman said. "The propaganda ... people are brainwashed."
Huffman previously said he and his wife wanted to leave the U.S. over "concerns of LGBT indoctrination" in school and "woke" culture in videos published online. After one of his daughters learned about lesbians from a girl in her class, the couple decided "something had to change."
Huffman joined the military in hopes of obtaining Russian citizenship for his family through an expedited process, he told Russian state media, adding that such service would allow him to earn the respect of his new country, which he said migrants in the U.S. refuse to do.
"A big part of it for me is about the respect and earning our place here in Russia, earning our citizenship," he said in a YouTube video. "You think about America, people just come on in. They're given everything. They just don't really assimilate and they're just there for the free handouts. I don't want anyone here in Russia or anywhere to be able to say we don't belong here."
Huffman's wife said in a video he is struggling because he does not speak Russian and has not received pay from the military yet. The family is lobbying public figures to get a safer deployment for Huffman, who initially hoped to work as a welder or war correspondent, she added.
Nearly 1 million Russian soldiers have been killed or injured in the country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in 2022, according to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Of those, as many as 250,000 are dead. Roughly 400,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded since the war began.
In the video, Huffman reiterated his surprise at the online uproar.
"I'm really shocked at the level of propaganda," he said. "We're nobodies from Texas. We're just average, normal people."
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