HOLYOKE — A former Holyoke city councilor who joined the Russian Army earlier this year, leaving the United States after facing felony child pornography possession charges in Rhode Island, is shown stating, in Russian, “victory will be ours,” in a new five-minute propaganda video released by the Kremlin on Monday.

The video, posted to the Russian Defense Ministry Telegram’s channel and with excerpts available on YouTube, has an interview with an American soldier named Will, believed to be Wilmer Puello-Mota. Puello-Mota has been fighting with Russian forces for several months, working as a reconnaissance drone operator, after serving one term as a Holyoke official.

In January, Puello-Mota was due to change his plea to child porn possession and other charges in a Rhode Island court when his lawyer learned that he had left the country.

Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military’s news organization, published an account of the video. Speaking in English with Russian subtitles, Puello-Mota describes his background, mentioning his 10 years of service in the U.S. Air Force and two years as a city councilor in Holyoke. He entered the Air Force on active duty in 2013 and later transferred to the Massachusetts National Guard, serving as a security forces technical sergeant at Barnes Air National Guard Base from June 2019 until October 2022.

Puello-Mota, speaking mostly English in the subtitled video, talks about applying his leadership skills for his fellow Russian soldiers and says he is not a traitor.

“The United States and Russia are not at war, the United States has done things that are very provocative, very bad,” Puello-Mota says. “It’s been involved in other people’s politics, other nations’ interests, and should not be doing that.”

Puello-Mota’s legal troubles began in 2020 in Warwick, Rhode Island, after he called police to report that his gun had been stolen at a hotel. Police learned he was there to meet a 17-year-old girl he had met online. When they searched his phone they found nude photos of the girl, and he was charged in January 2021 with possession of child pornography.

In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Puello-Mota was to plead guilty to all charges in exchange for an 18-month prison term and registering as a sex offender, according to his attorney.

Puello-Mota had been charged five months earlier with forging his commander’s signature in a misguided bid to resolve his child porn charges without a guilty plea. Prosecutors later filed additional charges against him including obstruction, forgery and counterfeiting.

Americans can lose citizenship if they enter military service in a foreign country, under certain conditions, according to the State Department.

In an earlier widely distributed video, someone alleged to be Puello-Mota is shown planting a U.S. flag in a Ukrainian city in support of Russian forces. The person’s face is blurred but he has been identified by his voice. “I’m here to plant the U.S flag as a sign of friendship and support for all the things people are enduring here,” he says.