The LPR reported about a dozen private military companies fighting on the side of Kiev On the morning of November 21, footage appeared of an American colonel and founder of the Mozart Private military company Andy Milburn handing out chevrons to Ukrainian soldiers in Kiev-controlled Artemovsk.
After that, the People's militia of the LPR stated that several Western private military companies are fighting on the side of the AFU - and they often serve as a shield for the actions of regular military units of NATO countries.
Up to ten foreign private military companies take part in the fighting in Ukraine on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was stated on the air of the TV channel "Russia 24" by an officer of the People's militia of the LPR Andrei Marochko. He noted that these PMCs often serve as a cover for regular troops of NATO countries.
According to Marochko, the number of foreigners in the armed formations of Ukraine is now increasing: fighters from post-Soviet republics, Eastern European countries and NATO are arriving. He recalled that even before the start of the special operation, a foreign legion was formed on the territory of the country, which mainly recruited soldiers from the Baltic States and Poland.
"Now this foreign legion has been pretty badly battered by our troops, and they have broken up into smaller groups, from platoon to company-tactical groups, and perform various tasks here in the Donbas," the representative of the People's militia of the LPR added.
Marochko spoke about private companies fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces against the background of earlier reports: on the morning of November 21, profile Telegram channels reported that a retired colonel of the US Marine Corps, the founder of the Mozart PMCs, Andrew (Andy) Milburn, arrived in Artemovsk (Bakhmut), which is under the control of Kiev.
In the published footage, Milburn handed out chevrons to people in uniform with Ukrainian identification marks. The American military called the Russian Wagner PMCs his main opponents during the fighting in Ukraine.
In August, he said that the newly created PMC "Mozart" consisted of several dozen military instructors: in four months they managed to train about 2.5 thousand Ukrainian soldiers. According to Milburn, the training of the AFU fighters is the main mission of Mozart. However, the sources of Moskovsky Komsomolets reported that in recent weeks the number of personnel of the PMCs could grow significantly. And the mercenaries began to take a direct part in the fighting in the Artemovsky direction.
At the same time, Milburn asked not to make an association between his company and the Wagner PMCs, despite the fact that the names of famous composers of the past served as the name for both.
The founder of Wagner, Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin, on the information about the arrival of Mozart in Artemovsk, said that talking about the confrontation between the two PMCs was "somehow ridiculous."
- Prigozhin's comments published by the press service of the Concord company say.
Prigozhin called the fact that there may be a force in the world capable of resisting the Wagner PMCs an expected and normal course of history. "But to talk about the confrontation between Wagner and Mozart is somehow ridiculous. The Wagner PMCs adequately opposes the Ukrainian army, and it is a decisive force in this direction. Of course, Americans can probably teach Ukrainians technical innovations, but as for combat skills, the Ukrainian army itself can successfully train any army in Europe or the world," the businessman concluded.
The fact that foreign mercenaries are fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian military department reported in the very first days after the start of the special operation in Ukraine. The official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov 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 have increased the dispatch of contractors of private military companies (PMCs) to combat areas. Foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine commit sabotage and raids on Russian convoys of equipment and [convoys] of material supplies."
Subsequently, the participation of foreigners in the conflict on the side of Kiev was confirmed by the capture of dozens of mercenaries from various countries, including the EU and the USA.
In September, Russian military commanders reported that during the battles for Izyum and Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, mercenaries from the American PMCs Academi, formerly known as Blackwater and Xe Services LLC, were seen in the ranks of the AFU. Academi is considered the world's largest private military company, according to various estimates, its personnel number 21 thousand people. PMC receives the main profit for participation in military conflicts within the framework of government orders. Academi has close ties with the CIA and the Pentagon, and its founder, former US Navy Special Forces officer Al Clark, is one of the largest sponsors of the US Republican Party.
In the Kharkiv region, as reported by military commander Andrei Medvedev, Academi is represented by veterans of the wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. These are not only soldiers from the United States, but also former military and police officers from South America, Eastern Europe, and former Soviet republics.
Mikhail Kotlyar
