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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe versatile Mr. Milburn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An American citizen, born in Britain, Andy Milburn retired in 2019 from the US Marine Corps with the rank of colonel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has more than three decades of service, including deployments to Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He even served as deputy commander of the US Special Operations Command (SOCCENT, part of USCENTCOM), which plans missions in the Middle East and Central Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Milburn went to Kyiv as a “freelance journalist”, publishing six responses until last May on the US defense website Task & Purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, he had already made a first public reference to the Mozart Group with a tweet on April 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It consists of former US SOF [special operations forces] personnel,” he wrote, “providing critically needed capabilities to frontline units in Ukraine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Group’s activities consist mainly of advising, training and equipping SOF units and the Ukrainian Resistance”\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just 24 hours later, he was celebrating that he had managed to raise the maximum amount allowed in PayPal donations of $20,000 on his first try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Half of that was paid by Obsidian Solutions Group, a privately held Virginia-based “broad-based consulting and technology” firm it says works with the US government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a Newsweek article at the time, Milburn argued that his job as a correspondent seemed “frivolous” while a war raged around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His decision to organize the Mozart group, he said, was made after he was asked for help \u201cfrom people I knew from previous visits who are now in the Ukrainian army\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting up Wagner’s rival awe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The choice of the great composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s epithet to name Andy Milburn’s group is apparently a symbolic counterpoint to the naming of Prigozhin’s company after Wilhelm Richard Wagner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, the American Mozart Group is on paper a Wyoming-based limited liability company registered as a charity that can receive tax-free donations through the Sunflower Task Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Officially, its members do not carry weapons and it is not directly involved in combat – except in cases of self-defense – to comply with US law that prohibits US citizens from joining foreign armies or participating in combat against countries not at war with the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the team’s founder, its operating expenses amount to at least $170,000 a month. However, “the Ukrainian soldiers we train are paid more than our men,” Milburn argues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He insists, however, that this amount is covered so far by donations, for which he appeals regularly through social networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Mozart group receives no Western funding, he told Newsweek last month, although – as he pointed out – he would like to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this week, he went one step further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said he wants to see his “skillful and specialized” team of veterans “assist in command and control at operational centers” in Ukraine, as well as “assist ‘fire teams,'” using artillery and other means such as unmanned aerial vehicles. aircraft”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These, speaking to the Daily Telegraph, in the context of the British newspaper’s investigation into the “shadow groups of Western military veterans operating in Ukraine, largely unchecked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-238-1024x614.png\")
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