The American from Texas who fought alongside the pro-Russian separatists disappears in Donetsk, Ukraine

Russell Bentley, an American who fought against Ukrainian forces, has gone missing in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, police said on Friday, adding that they had launched a search for him.

According to police, Bentley went missing on April 8. Online news outlet "Mash" said he had gone missing after an area in the city of Donetsk was bombed by Ukrainian forces.

"Mash" quoted his wife as saying that he had gone to see if anyone needed help but never returned. She said she found his car with the baseball cap in it along with his broken cell phone and a pair of glasses.

Bentley, 64, is a self-proclaimed supporter of pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.

He joined pro-Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and used the military nickname "Texas," Russian state news agency RIA wrote.

RIA says Bentley later gave up his weapons for journalism and worked with the Sputnik news agency, another state entity, as well as taking Russian citizenship.

Russian state media have described Bentley as a war correspondent.

In 2022, Rolling Stone magazine conducted an interview with Bentley titled "The Strange Story of How a Texas Leftist Became Putin's Frontline Propagandist."