Wagner Lays An American Flag On A Coffin In Ukraine
Videos show the dark reality faced by American mercenaries in Ukraine.
original video source: https://t.me/prigozhin_2023_tg/1319
As a US citizen, the sight of an American flag being laid by Wagner members on a makeshift coffin in a Ukrainian conflict zone was of immediate interest to me. My subsequent investigations uncovered a wealth of intriguing information that I intend to delve into further over the next few weeks. Given the depth and specificity of the matter, the format of this article may differ slightly from my usual style.
Who was the American whose body lay in that coffin, and why were they in Ukraine?
A video posted on Yevgeny Prigozhin’s official Telegram channel reveals the Wagner chief standing beside coffins containing the bodies of recently deceased pro-Ukrainian mercenaries, including that of US Army veteran Nick Maimer. Although the footage above shows a closed coffin, another highly graphic video confirms the identity of the deceased. According to his family, it was a sense of moral obligation that drove Maimer to provide support to Ukrainian forces in their ongoing struggle against Russia. The presence of numerous mercenary groups, which veterans are often exposed to upon leaving military service, would have made such involvement easily accessible for him.
Just a few months after the conflict began in 2022, Maimer made his way to Ukraine as a member of the Mozart Group, a private military company riddled with internal strife and controversy. Maimer's uncle confirmed Mozart’s shift reputation in an interview with CNN after his nephew's passing, recounting Nick's dissatisfaction with the professionalism and competence of the Mozart Group. This dissatisfaction prompted him to seek involvement with a different organization, leading him to a group called AFGFREE, a group initially focused on evacuation efforts in Afghanistan.
The group was founded by a man named Perry Blackburn, who, having fought in Afghanistan as an officer in the US Army, was deeply disturbed by the aftermath resulting from the botched withdrawal of US troops in 2020. Interviews on various social media platforms reveal his obvious, understandable resentment towards what he calls "the retreat" in Afghanistan. AFGFREE’s attention however has broadened to include the conflict in Ukraine. Seemingly oblivious to the potential dire consequences, AFGFREE has joined the list of private military groups leading fellow mercenaries and unprepared Ukrainians into one of the worst military conflicts of the century. The document below was posted to AFGFREE’s official twitter account, and verifies the transfer of Nick Maimers remains.
Maimer’s final role in Ukraine was in leading training operations for Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces, a military reserve force that includes some of the regiments responsible for the human rights violations against civilians in the Donbas region. (Although Maimer himself didn’t arrive in Ukraine until 2022, the formation of the Territorial Defense Forces were a result of the NATO-backed war against the Russian people in Donbas that began following Barack Obama and Victoria Nuland’s coup in 2014.)
Maimer died in May during the fiercely contested battles of Bakhmut/Artemovsk. Despite rumors on various social media platforms suggesting he had suffered torture at the hands of Russian forces prior to death, video evidence strongly indicates that his cause of death was an artillery attack. According to reports, Maimer was seeking shelter in a building that collapsed from an intense bombardment by Russian forces. His body was repatriated in a prisoner exchange about a week later.
As the remains were prepared for the transfer, Prigozhin, true to his dark sense of humor, seized the moment as an opportunity to mock Western mercenaries who throw their lives away for foreign interests. “So we will hand him over to the United States of America, we’ll put him in a coffin, cover him with the American flag with respect because he did not die in his bed as a grandpa but he died at war and most likely worthy, right?”
Expect future articles to feature more information on the international activities of volunteer military groups.
-The Shultz Report by M. Shultz