American spies and special forces operatives are in Ukraine helping its military in the conflict with Russia, according to one US fighter who thought he was speaking with former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko. Instead, he was speaking with Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus.
Interviews with “soldiers of misfortune” were posted on Wednesday as part of the latest episode of the notorious duo’s RuTube show. Jason Freeman, who is married to a Ukrainian in Nikolaev, was the first they tried to recruit into “Poroshenko’s” new mercenary outfit.
Freeman boasted that he killed 21 Russian soldiers and hit 13 more, but admitted that his entire unit was destroyed in the battle of Artyomovsk (known in Ukraine as Bakhmut). He also complained about problems with getting paid and criticized the Ukrainian Armed Forces command as incompetent.
“Young Ukrainians are dying because of bad orders or tactics. Most of those here are actually fresh meat,” Freeman said, according to a translation of his remarks.
According to Freeman, CIA and US special forces operatives are in Ukraine even now, advising the Ukrainian armed forces on the frontlines.
The New York Times revealed the CIA’s presence in Ukraine on Sunday, noting that the US spy agency has been setting up operations in the country since the 2014 coup in Kiev and is currently operating a dozen bases along the Russian border.
The second mercenary who spoke to “Poroshenko” was identified as Joshua Randsford, who said he wasn’t interested in Ukrainian politics, only “fighting against Russia.” Randsford said he had fought in Afghanistan and Iraq and that the current conflict seemed worse, due to the Ukrainians’ “lack of professionalism.”
Morale is low both in the military and among the special forces operated by the GUR intelligence, he claimed. Randsford spoke from Poland, where he is attending a sniper course, but said he was looking forward to returning to fighting as soon as possible.
The Americans also complained that Ukraine’s counteroffensive last summer had been “a waste of lives” and seemed resigned to Kiev’s forces taking even more casualties as the fighting went on.
Last July, the Russian Defense Ministry estimated that around 11,000 foreign fighters flocked to Ukraine at the start of the conflict. About 5,000 had left the country while others became casualties, leaving only around 2,000 on the battlefield, Moscow said.
According to Vovan and Lexus – Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov – that number might be as high as 20,000, however. AP recently reported that Kiev was offering $3,300 a month to former Colombian soldiers, luring them away from mercenary work in Yemen or the drug cartels. One Ukrainian officer has told CNN that a lot of the foreigners who come to Ukraine with romantic notions flee after experiencing the reality of war.
