Has Blackwater been deployed to Ukraine? Notorious U.S.
mercenaries 'seen on the streets of flashpoint city' as Russia claims
300 hired guns have arrived in country
- Unidentified armed men seen on the streets of Donetsk in east Ukraine
- Russian diplomat claims 300 mercenaries had arrived in Kiev this week
- Mercenaries in the region could give Putin pretext for military action
- Donetsk has been the scene of big pro-Russian demonstrations this week
By
Damien Gayle
|
At least two
videos published on YouTube earlier this week show burly, heavily armed
soldiers with no insignia in the city, which has been gripped by
pro-Moscow protests.
In one
of the videos onlookers can be heard shouting 'Blackwater! Blackwater!'
as the armed men, who wear no insignia, jog through the streets.
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A screengrab from a YouTube video showing armed
men on the streets of Donetsk, a largely Russian-speaking city in east
Ukraine which has been the scene of large protests against the country's
new regime/
Yesterday thousands of people gathered in the city centre waving Russian flags and calling for a referendum to determine the status of the strategically important coal-mining region.
Both the videos which purport to show 'Blackwater' mercenaries in Donetsk were uploaded last Monday, with their descriptions written in Russian.
The context of the videos is not clear, but it appears that the armed men had turned up at a street protest against the new regime. They wander around brandishing their weapons before suddenly fleeing the scene as passers-by shout 'Blackwater! Blackwater!'
Both the videos which purport to show
'Blackwater' mercenaries in Donetsk were uploaded last Monday, with
their descriptions written in Russian. They could give Russia the
pretext to invade the region
The armed men hop down from the elevated position where some had been standing and make their exit
Since the videos
emerged, Twitter has been alive with speculation that mercenaries linked
to Blackwater, now known as Academi, are active in Ukraine, helping to
prop up the embattled new pro-western government.
And
a Russian diplomat in Kiev told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday
that 300 employees of private security companies had arrived there.
'These
are soldiers of fortune proficient in combat operations. Most of them
had operated under private contracts in Iraq,
Afghanistan and other
states,' the source said. Interfax reported that the diplomat did not
disclose the nationalities of the mercenaries but said, 'Most of them
come from the United States'.
Asked
whether the soldiers seen in the videos could be from Academi, Dr
Nafeez Ahmed, a security expert with the Institute for Policy Research
& Development, said: ‘Difficult to say really. It's certainly not
beyond the realm of possibility - Academi have been deployed in all
sorts of theatres.
'I think the question is whether the evidence available warrants at least reasonable speculation.
‘On
the face of it, the uniforms of the people in the videos are consistent
with US mercs - they don't look like Russian soldiers mercs. On the
other hand, why run around in public making a show of it?’
He added: ‘Of course the other possibility is it's all Russian propaganda.’
Any suggestion that a U.S. mercenary outfit like
Blackwater, known now as Academi, had begun operating in east Ukraine
could give Russian president Vladimir Putin the pretext for a military
invasion
As the armed men left the scene, suspicious bystanders could be heard yelling 'Blackwater! Blackwater!'
Any suggestion that a U.S. mercenary
outfit like Academi had begun operating in the country could give
Russian president Vladimir Putin the pretext for a military invasion.
The
Russian parliament, the Duma, has already voted to give Putin the
authority to take action in the country, where the pro-Russian president
Viktor Yanukovych was last month ousted after mass protests in the
capital, Kiev.
Pro-Russian
forces have already seized control of the southern Ukrainian province of
Crimea, although the Kremlin denies that the thousands of heavily
armed, well-equipped men that have appeared there are under its control.
Last
month a report in the Daily Beast claimed that 'informed sources' in
Moscow had said the troops belong to Vnevedomstvenaya Okhrana, a private
security contracting bureau similar to Academi that is close to the
Kremlin.
The videos which emerged this week
come amid reports in Russian media which claimed that 300 'strong' men
had arrived at Kiev's Boryspil airport carrying military-style bags.
Reports
speculated that they were being sent to regions in eastern and southern
Ukraine where Russian-speaking and ethnic Russian groups posed a
secessionary threat to the new government.
Blackwater
was founded in 1997 by former U.S. Navy SEAL Erik Prince and were one
of several private security firms employed by the U.S. government to
protect its diplomatic missions overseas.
With
the outbreak of the Iraq war in 2003 the company's operations expanded
and its revenue mushroomed, but a string of controversial killings by
its personnel led to a rebranding, first to Xe and then to Academi, its
current name.
As well as
acting as security contractors, Blackwater are seen by some as a private
army that can promote U.S. interests without official military
involvement.
Technically
they are a multinational company and can by hired by anyone, but the
board of directors includes a number of U.S. establishment figures
including John Ashcroft, the former Attorney General, and former NSA
chief Bobby Ray Inman.
Pro-Russian demonstrators take part in a rally
in central Donetsk earlier today: The eastern city is in part of Ukraine
where the majority of the population are either Russian-speaking or
ethnic Russian
Russia! Help us: Protesters hold signs in English calling for Russian intervention in the region
No to Nato: A woman holds a sign decrying the
trans-Atlantic alliance, while the Hammer and Sickle, the flag of the
Soviet Union, flies in the background at the pro-Russian demonstration
earlier today
Riot police stand guard in front of regional
government building which was until Thursday occupied by pro-Russian
activists, as demonstrations carry on outside
If Blackwater are
present in Ukraine, it would make most sense for them to be deployed in
the country's east and south, where pro-Russian protesters raised the
Russian flag over the regional parliament last Saturday.
It remained in place until Thursday when Ukrainian police regained control of the building without any resistance.
Donetsk,
home city of deposed president Yanukovich, has seen the most persistent
pro-Moscow demonstrations in a wave of protests that have erupted
across southern and eastern cities.
MailOnline contacted Academi for comment, but there was no reply.
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