Jamie Read

 Ukraine Conflict: Dzerzhynske (Donetsk Oblast) Background:  The War in Donbass is an armed conflict in the Donbass region of Ukraine. From the beginning of March 2014, protests by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine–together commonly known as the “Donbass,” in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the Euromaidan movement. These demonstrations, which followed the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, were part […]

Mali: Terrorism Report  Background: The Northern Mali Conflict  On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence and greater autonomy for northern Mali, an area known as Azawad. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make Azawad an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had […]

In light of recent events in Niger where four US Special Forces soldiers were killed, many people are wondering: who are these terror groups operating in Africa? How many terrorist groups are in Africa? There is no short story to the history of terrorism in Africa, and there have long been Islamic terror groups operating […]

In sub-Saharan Africa, trouble keeps expanding in the form of new branches of extremist terror and criminal organizations. The question today is: Who is the Islamic State in the greater Sahara? The easy answer to that question is they are an Islamic State affiliation, which means they fall in line with Al Baghdadi’s group in […]

By now if you have been following the Ukrainian conflict, you will have seen or noticed and organization that calls themselves the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) the guys driving around eastern Ukraine in white Toyota Landcruisers. Below is a mission statement from their website. Who we are The OSCE has a comprehensive approach to security that […]

We all have read the history books about living in trenches and thinking, “My god that must suck so bad!…” well guys I can confirm that the trench life is hardcore. It’s not often these days that our soldiers get to experience trench warfare, the battlefields of today are not conventional where one might see the use of […]

In the last month or so we have seen a flare-up in the fighting in east Ukraine, there are a number of theories behind this but that’s not what this piece is about. For me, it was a place where fighting was a day-to-day business. Nothing had changed, just a bit more coverage than usual. […]

The situation here in Ukraine is one that is all too familiar with the promise of a new ceasefire that bears no weight. I think the problem is that when we think of the word ceasefire in the west, we think “no shooting, period.” Well, here in Ukraine it’s a word that is used very […]

Monday, February 20th, the new ceasefire agreement is in full swing across the front line of Ukraine, but is it going to hold up? I was in one of the front-line villages in last few days, and the Russian-backed rebels have dropped everything on them from AGS (Automatic grenade launcher), 82mm mortars, 120mm mortars to Grad rockets. […]

So here we are again boys and girls another ceasefire in Ukraine, to be honest, I knew about this yesterday but I didn’t really see the point in writing something up on it. My reason for this is in the last 2 year of me being here on and off, I have heard the word “ceasefire” […]

The commander of the “DNR” (Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic) “Somali” Mikhail Tolstoy, known as “Givi” was killed in Donetsk DNR leader Somali, better know as Givi, a 35-year-old commander died in his office in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Reports claim that he was killed by a portable rocket system, this was fired directly into […]

On February 2nd, the war in Ukraine turned up a few notches. It would seem that the once frozen war is escalating back to the old days. With major shelling in Avdiivka and shelling near the port town of Mariupol. The Russian-backed rebels have some fire in their loins, and some people here in Kiev […]