About ten foreign private military companies participate in the conflicts in Ukraine on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Andrey Marochko, an officer of the LPR people’s militia, said this on the broadcast of the Russia 24 TV channel. He noted that these PMCs often serve as a cover for regular troops of NATO countries.
“There are also many private military companies here. Now I have a hard time saying exactly how many there are but there are about 10 of these particular companies. “They’re just a cover for the regular NATO forces here in Ukraine,” he said.
According to Marochko, the number of foreigners in Ukraine’s armed formations is now increasing: fighters come from post-Soviet republics, Eastern European countries and NATO. He recalled that even before the start of the special operation, a foreign legion was formed on the territory of the country, in which mainly soldiers from the Baltic states and Poland were recruited.
“Now this foreign legion has been badly battered by our troops and has been divided into smaller groups, from a platoon to company tactical groups, where they perform various tasks in the Donbass,” added the representative of the people’s militia. LPR.
Marochko spoke about private companies fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the backdrop of previous reports: on the morning of November 21, private Telegram channels reported that Andrew (Andy), a retired US Marine Corps colonel, founder of PMC Mozart. Milburn
In the published footage, Milburn handed out chevrons to people in uniform with Ukrainian identification marks. The American military called the Russian Wagner PMC their main rival during the conflict in Ukraine.
In August, he said that the Mozart PMC, which he had recently created, consisted of several dozen military trainers: they managed to train about 2.5 thousand Ukrainian soldiers in four months. According to Milburn, the training of fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is Mozart’s main task. But the sources of Moskovsky Komsomolets reportedThe number of PMC staff could increase significantly in recent weeks. And the mercenaries began to take a direct part in the hostilities in the Artemovsk direction.
At the same time, Milburn asked that no association be made between his company and Wagner PMC, although both names are named after famous composers of the past.
Wagner’s founder, Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, in response to information about Mozart’s arrival in Artemovsk, said it was “somehow absurd” to talk about the conflict between the two PMCs.
As in history, we did not organize competitions for the name. And it so happened that the Wagner PMC is the world’s largest private army and the most combat-ready. Therefore, no matter how they call themselves “Mozarts” or “Salieri”, “Schuberts” or “Kirkorovs” – various military formations – this gives them neither power nor advantage, nothing but hype.”
– says published Reviews of the press service of the company “Concord” Prigogine.
Prigozhin described the fact that there could be a power in the world that could resist the Wagner PMC as the expected and normal course of history. “But talking about the conflict between Wagner and Mozart is somehow absurd. PMC “Wagner” sufficiently resists the Ukrainian army and is a decisive force in this direction. “Of course, the Americans can probably teach the Ukrainians technical innovations, but when it comes to combat skills, the Ukrainian army itself can successfully train any army in Europe or the world,” he said.
The fact that foreign mercenaries fought on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was reported by the Russian military department in the first days after the start of special operations in Ukraine. Igor Konashenkov, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, said on March 3 that “against the background of the encirclement and destruction by the Russian armed forces of the main groups of Ukrainian nationalists, Western countries increased the dispatch of contract soldiers. military companies (PMCs) to battlefields. Foreign mercenaries arriving in Ukraine sabotage and raid Russian equipment convoys and [колонны] transport of material resources.
Later, the participation of foreigners in the conflict on the Kyiv side was confirmed by the capture of dozens of mercenaries from various countries, including the EU and the USA.
In September, Russian military correspondents reported that during the battles of Izyum and Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, mercenaries from the American PMC Academi, formerly known as Blackwater and Xe Services LLC, were seen in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Academi is considered by various estimates to be the largest private military company in the world, with a staff of 21,000. PMC receives the main profit for participating in military conflicts as part of government orders. The Academi has close ties to the CIA and Pentagon, and its founder, former US Navy Special Forces officer Al Clark, is one of the US Republican Party’s largest funders.
In the Kharkov region, the Academi is represented by war veterans from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, military commander Andrey Medvedev reported. These are not only soldiers from the United States, but also former army and police officers from South America, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics.