NOURNEWS- Amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive that is being staunchly repelled by the Russian armed forces, the International Legion, an international group of mercenaries seeking to aid Kyiv's forces in the war effort, is continuing to try and bolster their ranks amid the waning forces. Spanish-based G.O.A. Tactical, the sole company in Spain specializing in training mercenaries for Ukraine, is trying to recruit more troops to join the war effort.
The mercenaries are put through rigorous testing that, reportedly, many drop out after the first course, which involves sleep deprivation, among many other straining exercises. Those wishing to go to the Ukrainian front lines have to incur a fee of €700 ($750) to undergo five days of training for a chance of getting to sign a contract with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense that is worth around €3,400 ($3,600) if they manage to join the elite units.
In addition to sleep-deprivation tests, candidates must endure exercises like sprinting with military gear, capturing and clearing occupied trenches, and facing stress tests in hostile environments. Francisco Galván, director and head trainer of G.O.A. Tactical, clarified the role of his company in this process, stating, "Our company has contacts with defense ministries all over the world, including Ukraine. What we do is evaluate a person who is interested in fighting and give them the contacts, so they can get in touch with them."
However, he underlined that it is the volunteer's responsibility to directly initiate contact with the Ukrainian authorities. This is to avoid the company being classified as a private security and defense contractor, the so-called Private Military Companies, a service similar to the Wagner Group or America’s infamous Black Water group.
Upon verification of their qualifications and validation certificates, successful candidates can secure employment in the Ukrainian armed forces. According to the director, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense tasked mercenaries who had gone back to Spain to recruit people to fight in the war.
The International Legion is operating under the oversight of Ukrainian intelligence, with the Ministry of Defense launching in 2022 a program to integrate the mercenaries into its ranks. It’s noteworthy to mention that, the director has stresses that none of the volunteers have a criminal record, but one must ask, a mercenary who wishes to fight in a proxy war and shed blood without answering to anyone, does not really have a criminal and shady record?
Ukraine, in light of its faltering counteroffensive, urgently needs more troops as it loses soldiers at an abysmal rate. There are approximately 500,000 personnel serving in the armed forces, with US military intelligence estimating that Ukraine has incurred 190,000 casualties since the start of the war. But recently, few reports have emerged about the actual death toll in Ukrainian front, which is more than half a million casualties.
Since the start of the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian army has lost around 66,000 military personnel and 7,600 weapons, Russia's minister of defense said Over the previous month, Russian air defense systems had also destroyed 13 cruise missiles, over 1,000 unmanned aerial vehicles, and 159 HIMARS rockets, he added.
"The Russian armed forces continue to destroy the military infrastructure of Ukraine with precision strikes. Over the past month alone, 34 command posts of the Ukrainian armed forces ... were hit."
In July, White House National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, considered that it was premature to judge the outcome of Kyiv's counteroffensive, adding that while losing "significant" soldiers, Ukrainian forces still have "substantial" reserves to deploy in combat. Responding to a question on whether the "real counteroffensive is yet to come," Sullivan indicated that "there have already been significant amounts of casualties and deaths of Ukrainian fighters in this counteroffensive, so it is well underway. And it is hard going. And we said it would be hard going."
It is worth noting that American political scientist John Mearsheimer said in an interview transcribed by The Grayzone: "It seems to me that anybody who knows anything about military tactics and strategy had to understand that there was hardly any chance that the Ukrainian counteroffensive would succeed."
Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Western supporters of Kyiv are disappointed with the results of Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russia, pointing out that despite the supply of weapons and foreign mercenaries, the Ukrainian forces have not been successful in breaking through the Russian army's front lines.
The Important point here is not the integration of mercenaries and guns for hire groups into Ukraine’s ranks, because this is an all-out war, so it's normal for countries such as Ukraine which have track records drenched in governmental corruption and sale of western weaponry into black markets all around the world to hire criminals and unknown mercenaries to fight the US and NATO’s proxy war against Russia.
The important matter here is the unending and knowingly support of West of criminals to fight and perish in an unwinnable and failed counteroffensive, as of today, 9 September 2023, a lot of reports have been published regarding America’s decision to send ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles to Ukraine to use against Russia in its counteroffensive, at first, the pentagon has denied these reports, but the same thing has happened before Washington’s decision to send Uranium depleted ammunition to Ukraine, at first officials denied these reports, but suddenly every report turned out to be true.
While considering the massive debacle which Ukraine has suffered during its ongoing counteroffensive against Russia, Ukraine’s governmental terror based ideology, its shady track record regarding deep-rooted Neo-Nazism in its governmental body and sale of Western weaponry in black markets to terror groups for gaining profit, Kyiv’s decision for hiring shady mercenaries is a horrendous fact, but it’s understandable, but one must ask why the West calls for peace on one hand, and on the other hand, it recruits mercenaries and criminals, provides massive weaponry support packages for Ukraine then it claims that these decisions are being made for ensuring the war does not expand to other parts of the world and all of these measures are to protect the world against Russia, the Great Evil.
While civilians and normal taxpayers suffer from their governments’ decisions to support Ukraine in a war which they started long time ago before 22 February 2022 and Russia’s decision to start its special military operation against Ukraine and NATO’s expansion in the region, the Western high officials are profiting from the war and filling their pockets with the spoils of war and money flowed from signed defense contracts between Kyiv and their defense industries.
Spanish-based G.O.A. Tactical’s decision to recruit mercenaries for Ukraine is just to receive massive money from the course’s participation fee and being seen as a good-hearted company for helping Ukraine in the West’s propaganda against Russia.
BY: Homayoun Barkhor
NOURNEWS