[imagesource: Defence-Imagery via Pixabay]

It’s just shy of two weeks since Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine.

The UN says that as many as two million people have fled the country since then, with children making up around half of that number.

Millions more have been displaced from their homes, hiding in underground bunkers and leaving behind everything they know as the destruction continues.

Most make the trip to the nearest border (not the Belarussian one) and out of the country on foot, carrying a few belongings, but if you have money there’s always the option to pay a little extra and have the professionals help out.

The BBC reports that demand for private security contractors with past military experience has exploded. Large sums of money are being offered for services like the one advertised on Silent Professionals:

The recruitment platform would not say who it was advertising for, but according to [Robert Young Pelton, a Canadian American author and expert on private military companies], contractors are being hired for between $30,000 and $6m to help remove people from Ukraine. The higher-end figure is for whole groups of families wanting to leave with their assets, he said.

The price of evacuations depends on the complexity of the work, said Tony Schiena, CEO of Mosaic, a US-headquartered intelligence and security advisory firm already operating in Ukraine.

“When there’s a larger amount of people, the risk goes up. Children and families are more difficult. It all depends on the methods we get them across”.

Schiena is a former South African intelligence operative, with Mosaic’s board including a number of former high-ranking US intelligence officials.

I popped past the Silent Professionals website and found this listing. Top left:

A brief look at the job description:

It’s not just wealthier Ukrainians stumping up for the service:

They are working with private clients, corporations and PIPs – politically exposed people – to help evacuate them from Ukraine, Mr Schiena told the BBC.

He claimed an “intelligence agency of a pretty large country” that wanted to get its citizens out was among his clients.

In 2020, the global private military and security industry was worth an estimated $224 billion.

There have been some who wonder whether these private contractors will become involved in the actual fighting, rather than just extraction.

Simon Mann, the former British special forces officer founder for Executive Outcomes and Sandline, believes that is highly unlikely:

“How [would they be] funded? How [would they be] commanded? Where would they fit in the Ukraine order of battle?” he asked.

“Would they be duly enrolled in the national armed forces before any operations? If not, then what would be their legal position? Casualties? Medical cover? Death and disability insurance?”

All valid questions. Surely your company covers medical aid in a gig like this?

Those familiar with the situation in Mozambique will remember that South African ‘mercenaries’ from the Dyck Advisory Group (DAG), hired by the Mozambican government, were accused of carrying out “indiscriminate helicopter attacks” and killing civilians in early 2021.

DAG would later play a vital role in extracting South Africans from the terror siege which occurred not long after.

[source:bbc]