New twist in case of US soldier ‘arrested after girlfriend lured him to Russia’
The married man flew to Russia instead of returning home to Texas.
The wife of a US soldier arrested in Russia said his girlfriend ‘stabbed’ him while on a surprise video call with his six-year-old daughter.
Staff sergeant Gordon Black, 34, was charged with theft after taking a detour to Russia on his way home from South Korea to Texas.
His mother, Melody Jones, believes he ‘was lured’ there by his Russian girlfriend, Aleksandra Vashchuk, NBC reported.
Now Black’s estranged wife, Megan Black, claims Vashchuk stabbed him with a knife in front of the separated couple’s distraught daughter months before his arrest.
Black video called ‘out of the blue’ demanding to speak with his daughter while he was still in South Korea.
He appeared to be in a taxi with a woman, believed to be Vashchuk, who ‘started yelling something at him in Russian’, Megan’s lawyer Jeff Linick said.
All of a sudden Vashchuk pulled out a knife and ‘stabbed him’, leaving Black with ‘blood on his face’, MailOnline reported.
Megan, who is in the process of getting divorced, last heard from Black on May 2 when texted to say he ‘wasn’t coming home’.
That day he was arrested in Vladivostok, where he had flown via China from the South Korean city of Incheon, despite no permission from his military superiors to travel there.
He had left Camp Humphreys, the USA’s largest overseas military facility, and was due to arrive at Fort Cavazos, Texas, for a new assignment.
US officials have been warning against travel to Russia due to a pattern of security services imprisoning US citizens there.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, corporate security executive Paul Whelan, and history teacher Marc Fogel are all locked up there.
American basketball player Brittney Griner was freed in a prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the ‘Merchant of Death’, in December 2022.
Black, who ignored this warning, now faces at least two months of pre-trial detention after being pulled off the plane and charged with ‘stealing property’ when he landed.
Asked why the soldier of 16 years travelled there, his mother pointed the finger at Vashchuk, who spent five years in South Korea where they met.
Jones said: ‘He met her in the bar where she was working, and they’ve been together, on and off, for about a year and a half.
‘I’ve never met her in person, but I’ve spoken to her over Messenger. My motherly instincts told me something was wrong with her.’
When Vashchuk was ‘sent back’ to Russia, possibly due to problems with her paperwork, Jones warned her son not to follow her.
She said: ‘I was more worried about him going to Russia than I was when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan.’
But Jones believes Vashchuk ‘lured’ him there anyway.
The US Army is investigating whether Black was specifically targeted by Putin’s intelligence services.
Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry denied the arrest was motivated by politics or espionage.
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