12 January 2023
By Pjotr Sauer
Hundreds of civilians remain trapped in Soledar, Ukraine has said, (click here) as bloody fighting continues over control of the largely destroyed salt mining town in eastern Ukraine.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk, told Ukrainian state TV that 559 civilians remained in Soledar, including 15 children, and could not be evacuated.
Ukraine said on Thursday its troops were “holding on” as fighting continued in Soledar, dismissing claims made by the Russian mercenary group Wagner that its forces had taken control of the town....
He wasn't at January 6th. Soledar, Ukraine is about 12 and 1/2 hours from Moscow, Russia. About 600 miles as the crow flies. I take it no one there is dying of wounds of war or suffering from genocide at the hand of a country grossly out of step with reality.
Someone needs to set up a bank of drones that fly day and night to end this mess and protect the Ukraine borders.
July 7, 2021
By Simon Shuster
On the second night of his visit to Kyiv, (click here) Erik Prince had a dinner date on his agenda. A few of his Ukrainian associates had arranged to meet the American billionaire at the Vodka Grill that evening, Feb. 23, 2020. The choice of venue seemed unusual. The Vodka Grill, a since-defunct nightclub next to a KFC franchise in a rough part of town, rarely saw patrons as powerful as Prince.
As the party got seated inside a private karaoke room on the second floor, Igor Novikov, who was then a top adviser to Ukraine’s President, remembers feeling a little nervous. He had done some reading about Blackwater, the private military company Prince had founded in 1997, and he knew about the massacre its troops had perpetrated during the U.S. war in Iraq. Coming face to face that night with the world’s most prominent soldier of fortune, Novikov remembers thinking: “What does this guy want from us?”...
...This account of Prince’s ambitions in Ukraine is based on interviews with seven sources, including current and former U.S. and Ukrainian officials as well as people who worked directly with Prince to try to realize his aspirations in Ukraine. Those business plans, which have not been previously reported, were confirmed by four of the sources on both sides of the negotiations, all of whom recalled meeting in person with Prince last year to discuss them...
