An American soldier who was arrested in Russia more than a week ago was stabbed by his Russian girlfriend in a fight that unraveled in front of his ex and young daughter during a video call months before his detainment, according to a report.
Army soldier Gordon Black made a surprise video call to his soon-to-be ex-wife Megan Black and their 6-year-old child, who live in Texas, during his overseas tour in South Korea when the call turned into a gory nightmare.
The mother and daughter watched Black get into a screaming match with his Russian girlfriend before the woman allegedly clawed at his face and then flashed a knife, Megan told Reuters Sunday.
“She stabbed him,” she alleged in an interview with the news agency.
She added her 34-year-old husband “had blood on his face,” as his distraught daughter watched.
While Reuters did not name the girlfriend, previous news reports indicate Black was in a relationship with a Russian woman named Aleksandra Vashchuk.
The bloody fracas came months before Black, a staff sergeant, was arrested on accusations of theft after an argument in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok on May 2, Russian authorities said.
Black — who was stationed at Camp Humphreys outside Seoul, but was in Russia on personal business — is being held in pretrial confinement. He broke Army rules by flying to Russia without the Army’s OK, the Pentagon said.
His mother, Melody Jones, previously told NBC News that she believes Black “was lured” to Russia by Vashchuk and then set up by her. She believes he was arrested on trumped-up charges for stealing about $100 from her.
Jones also told Reuters that the pair fought “like cats and dogs.” She said the girlfriend was “sent back” to Russia from South Korea, possibly over paperwork.
“I told them both: You don’t need to be together. One of you is going to get hurt one of these days,” Jones reportedly said.
Megan and her jailed husband were close to finalizing their divorce when he was arrested.
The pair originally hit it off in 2014 after meeting at a bar, but years later the relationship fell apart starting in 2018, she told Reuters. Gordon Black moved for a divorce shortly after he left for South Korea.
Megan said she first became aware of the Russian girlfriend in January 2022 when saw photos of the couple on Facebook, with the girlfriend calling him “her husband.”
She and her daughter didn’t know he was in Russia leading up to his arrest and thought he was coming home to Texas because his South Korea tour had just ended.
But on the day he was arrested, he sent her a message “telling me that he wasn’t coming home.”
Megan struggled to receive child support payments from her husband until the Army got involved and began withholding some money from his paychecks for child support, her lawyer Jeff Linick told Reuters.
Gordon Black could not be reached by Reuters for comment and could not be reached through the State Department. The Army also did not respond to a Reuters request for comment about the story.
The Post has also sought comment from the Army about the allegations.
Black’s arrest comes as the US works to free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained in March 2023 and former marine Paul Whelan who has been detained since 2018.
With Post wires.