Ben Makuch
Amid reports that Donald Trump’s administration is considering using US private military contractors in a postwar Ukraine, multiple sources tell the Guardian one high-profile and controversial American from the “war on terror” era is already circling for business.
In the streets of Kyiv, military hawks and defense privateers have described how Erik Prince, Maga disciple and founder of the now-defunct mercenary company Blackwater, has been aggressively pitching his services and looking to buy.
According to those same sources who spoke on background and on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive defense matters, Prince was pitching himself to the valuable Ukrainian drone sector and seeking meetings with leading industry players.
“Erik is going out there to buy drone companies,” said one of the sources, with another confirming Prince was in the hunt to acquire drone makers with a footprint in Ukraine.
“Whether they would sell them …” the source said. “For the Ukrainians these companies are now strategic assets.”
Prince’s latest gambit in Ukraine coincided with Trump’s attempts at brokering a peace deal between the Kremlin and the Ukrainian government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in August, which has yet to yield any diplomatic breakthroughs.
Since drones became the main killing tool of the conflict, accounting for an estimated 80% of Russian casualties, western investors and defense companies have flocked to get in on Ukraine’s coveted battlefield data and emergent drone technologies for their own wares.
Now Prince allegedly wants to do the same, which experts say is an unsurprising development for an opportunistic defense contractor who is cozy with the Trump administration and has a history of profit-seeking from foreign wars.
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