“Conscription (in Ukraine) stopped this year, but they are a long way from developing a small, professional army.” -American Special Forces Veteran On the Ground in Ukraine.
Recent Headlines
Kremlin accuses U.S. security firm with links to Blackwater of sending ‘private army’ to Ukraine disguised as local forces in latest escalation of anti-American rhetoric
Russia claims 150 Americans have been sent to Ukraine by a U.S. firm with historic links to Blackwater, the private security contractor which made headlines after a mass shooting in Iraq.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow today condemned the use of a supposed private army by Greystone Ltd ‘disguised’ as local forces. Greystone, which claims it recruits from the world’s top armies and police forces, was founded in 2004 as an affiliate of Blackwater before breaking away to become a standalone firm in 2010. -UK Daily Mail
US Contractor Greystone Denies Its ‘Mercenaries’ in Ukraine
The Russian government today claimed there are more than 100 American “mercenaries” from a defense contracting company disguised as Ukrainian troops in the embattled former Soviet nation, a claim the American firm and top U.S. officials deny. –ABC News
Interesting.
Denials, cover stories, citizen spying, no warrant wire taps, and government propaganda leaks make it hard to sift out truth from falsehood these days. Trust in American government to tell the truth could be argued to be at an all time low.
About Greystone
A private security service, Greystone is registered in Barbados, and employs soldiers for off-shore security work through its affiliate Satelles Solutions, Inc.Their web site advertises their ability to provide “personnel from the best militaries throughout the world” for worldwide deployment. Tasks can be from very small scale up major operations to “facilitate large scale stability operations requiring large numbers of people to assist in securing a region” -Wikipedia
A SOFREP Open Source Dig With An “Escape The Wolf” Shovel
So, is Greystone in Ukraine? If the company was on contract with the CIA, one thing is certain: they wouldn’t be admitting it to ABC News. The nice thing about the Internet is that it’s global, and open source intel is a wonderful thing.
So take a look at what we dug up relatively easily and make up your own mind, it’s what you should do these days anyways. Collect, analyze, and decide for yourself based on shared observations and assessments with people whom you trust, and hopefully we’re on that list.
1. On purpose or sloppy? Greystone servers are not set with a proxy, thus easily hackable.
2. The company itself announces doing business with Russia in their own website:
“New business in Russia Greystone recently provided executive protection services in Russia. New business in the Caribbean Greystone recently deployed a …”
3. Then, they announced doing business in Eurasia:
“New business in Eurasia Greystone has recently been awarded a contract for Executive Protection Services in the Caucasus region of Eurasia.”
Use this cache to see the announcement.
4. Several Russian bloggers, like this one, saying that Greystone Ltd people has been hired in Ukraine to replace the police that flee.
As we said earlier, one of the problems Ukraine faces is a vacuum of security forces due to those that have switched sides.
5. This one has some interesting dialog… one blogger calls them “innocent Americans,” and the other one points to the Greystone website service page.
Note the date… The bloggers were talking about this on 25 March. It took 14 days before the US media broke any news about this.
6. Some good news… we did not see any email address for company members spilled on Russian servers.
7. However, on Ukrainian servers, an interesting dialog about the company. They cannot find anything on the company when they use the Ukrainian Google, but when they go outside it, they can find whatever they want.
Conclusion
What do fledgling states do when they don’t have a strong military or security force? History has answered this question repeatedly: They ask friends for money, and outsource the work.
Follow the money and you’ll see who’s paying for Ukraine security forces. Russia isn’t happy about it, and is launching their own media propaganda campaign to put pressure on EU and American interests.
Only time will tell if Greystone is involved or not, but one thing is likely, somebody is doing the work and advising the Ukraine government, and it’s not the Russians.
(Featured Image Courtesy: YouTube)
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