Kyiv Ukraine, May 25, 2023

In partnership with Channel 24 News, Ukraine

In the midst of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, retired US Army Special Forces LTC Perry Blackburn discusses the recovery of his SF Brother Nick Maimer KIA in Bahkmut Ukraine last week.

Blackburn went to Ukraine himself to provide humanitarian aid to those affected by the war. Perry’s NGO is AFGFree.org, and he has been working as a civilian trainer, offering his expertise and knowledge to support the Ukrainian military. AFGFree.org is a non-profit organization that specializes in evacuation and humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, and has extended his charitable work to Ukraine. The organization focuses on delivering aid to Russian-occupied areas, where access to basic necessities like food and medicine is scarce. While the NGOs primary role is humanitarian, they have been training alongside Ukrainian soldiers as they carry out supply missions.

Blackburn recently lost his SF brother, a tragic loss of his friend and colleague retired US Army Special Forces Nicholas Maimer, who played a significant role in assessing and coordinating aid distribution. There is a deep bond between the American volunteers and the Ukrainian people, driven by a shared understanding of the consequences of war and a desire to minimize the impact on civilians. This article done in partnership with Ukrainian Channel 24 News, touches on the transfer of Maimer’s remains by the Russians and the expectation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. It also explores the role of foreign military assistance, including the transfer of heavy weapons and the formation of the F16 coalition, which could provide Ukraine with air superiority. The article addresses concerns over the potential use of nuclear weapons by Russia and emphasizes the importance of prioritizing civilian safety in any conflict. Finally, Blackburn contemplates the influence of the ongoing war in Ukraine on the upcoming US elections, expressing confidence in continued support for Ukraine’s cause regardless of political shifts.

The New York Times wrote that since the start of the full-scale invasion, you have been training the Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine as a civilian. Why did you decide to do this? What do you teach Ukrainian soldiers, and how many have you already trained? In addition, you are the founder of AFGFree.org, a non-profit organization that provides evacuation and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. Now you are also doing charity work in Ukraine. Where do you collect aid, and how do you help Ukrainians?

So I had been over there a couple of times and got a really good kind of understanding of the people and the culture and, particularly, you know, had a good time with the football players and, so I kind of had a bond with Ukraine from then on.

When the war started, I just felt like there was something that I had to offer. There’s something that we had to offer from within the organization. And so that’s why I went over there to look at what are the opportunities, what is the need in Ukraine and I found really quickly that one of the ways that we could help was to provide humanitarian assistance into Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. And a lot of that, as you know, has to do with once they’re off, once the Russians aren’t part of the area, commerce flows and is very difficult for the people to be able to get just basic foodstuff and medicine. So that’s what we began doing almost immediately.

About training the soldiers, what do you teach your Ukrainian soldiers and how many of them have you already trained?

So for us, ours is again, mainly humanitarian. We train with our humanitarian efforts. And because it’s in Ukraine with their military, they’re intrinsically a part of each other. You gotta have one to do the other. It’s different in the United States where we have a specialized organization that does nothing but civil affairs type of activities. In Ukraine, all the military does it. So to be able to train alongside them as we push supplies in is what we are doing and what we’ve been doing currently. That was our main effort.

Regarding Humanitarian Aid, you provide this aid only to occupied territories?

Yes, there are other nonprofits and non-government organizations that are providing aid and other supplies throughout Ukraine, but we specialize in the occupied areas.

Let’s talk about your close friend, Nicholas Maimer, who died near Bakhmut. According to media reports, Nicholas Maimer joined your organization, actually, which helped provide humanitarian aid to Ukrainians. What was his role in this organization?

So when Nick and I first met in Ukraine in Kyiv actually, we both had a common perspective of what we felt we could offer in Ukraine, and that was all our years of service in the military have come to this point where we felt we could help people. And my organization is a flat organization, everything we receive goes to humanitarian efforts. We don’t have employees, we have people, we have networks that work with each other, and I’ve found that that has been probably one of the best ways to do a nonprofit organization. And Nick was part of that. Nick was part of providing an assessment of where that aid should and could go, and where it was needed.

When it happened, when your close friend was killed near Bakhmut, do you have any information about what Maimer was doing in Bakhmut? Was he fighting or was he organizing humanitarian aid to soldiers?

I don’t know. Honestly, I can speculate that Nick was doing what he had been doing before, and that was he was helping to assess, so that we could provide aid into the areas that need it. But the story is still yet to be written. I think Nick’s story will be written one day, and I think we’ll find that we lost a great humanitarian in Nick, and we lost a great friend to Ukraine in Nick.

Nick really-really loved the people of Ukraine, and we would have countless meetings with Ukrainians, and never were we frustrated with the language barrier, or frustrated with the way the direction of things were going. We realized how appreciative Ukrainians were for us being there and what we were doing. And I think in Nick’s story, when it is written and his final chapter is written, I think that we will find that he was a great service person to Ukraine.

Wagner’s chief, Pryghozin, said that Maimer’s body would be transferred to the United States. Did the Russians make any attempts to contact you or the veteran’s family to transfer his body?

Not yet, but I believe that they will. And I believe that they will because. They realize that this point in time there’s no real reason to hold on to Nick and as a professional in arms, it is not only the right thing to do, which is what is expected. It is what the world expects when we have a transfer of remains, from either side. War is difficult. In itself, but I think, and I hope that one of the honorable things that we can do in war is to provide a dignified transfer of remains. Regardless of the situation, regardless of the combat zone.

Can the US government help with the transfer?

I can’t speak for the US government. I think the US government has their own ways of doing things like this. I would hope as in any country that your government would advocate for the transfer of remains and once transferred that they would help in securing the remains. And I have full confidence that is what our US government does, and will always do.

We hear a lot of sad news about deaths of American soldiers in the war in Ukraine. In addition many members of the International Legion are Americans. Why do US citizens have such a desire to not only help Ukrainians but also to fight together?

I think for the most part guys like me, guys in my part, you know, my stage in life, been through war, see it as an unnecessary conflict. We don’t believe that this is a Just War. We don’t believe that it is a war that is indicative of some type of universal problem set that brought two countries together to go to war. So in understanding that and saying we don’t really believe in it, I think that’s why we are kind of moved to helping Ukraine. And I also think that we’re just tired. We’re tired of war and we see the effects on the civilian population. And so many of us want to minimize those effects. We want to help the population that’s non-combative. And that’s why we are galvanized to help in Ukraine.

Let’s talk about the Ukrainian counter offensive, everybody waits for this. Now Russian propagandists are outraged over the conduct of hospitalities by Russian volunteers in the Belgrade region of the Russian Federation. How do Americans feel that the fact the war could be transferred to Russian territory for the sake of Ukrainians victory over the aggressor?

I think we all understand that there’s a possibility. I think we all also understand that it’s a possibility that other countries surrounding Ukraine, can be affected by this war as a combative, not just a secondary or tertiary country that is an outlier. So we all kind of understand that, we all see that the direction, the ebb and flow of this war and how it’s going and none of us want to see it impact any other countries.

As far as the counter offensive or an offensive at Russia that’s in the prerogative of any country that is defending itself. Any country has the right to counter attack, at any level, at any space, to control their offensive operations. And as we look at this, the only reason you really defend is to conduct offense. And so that’s what we’re seeing develop currently on the battlefield.

As Ukraine is preparing for a counteroffensive, Western partners are transferring a lot of heavy weapons, including Leopards, Challenger 2, Abrams, and Patriot air defense systems. In your opinion, will these weapons be enough for the Ukrainian army to launch a successful counteroffensive?

They’ll help, they’ll aid and definitely be helpful in the tools that they need. The next part of that is the Ukrainian soldiers. And I think the world has seen that the Ukrainian soldiers are the difference in this war. They are the ones that have made a difference. It hasn’t been just the equipment. The equipment helps. But you really gotta have people that believe in the cause. And you have a country, and you have soldiers that truly believe in this cause and are willing to go to the end to fight for this. And I don’t think that, many of the world’s leaders and the most prolific thinkers thought that this would happen and we’re seeing it play out now for over a year and the difference maker has been the Ukrainian people.

The top new story of this week is the creation of the F16 coalition. According to various records, training for Ukrainian pilots may start this summer and they will be able to operate fighter jets in this coming winter. How do you assess the role of F16s in the war?

Any country that can achieve air superiority is going to have an advantage. And if Ukraine is able to achieve their superiority, they will have an advantage in the war effort moving forward.

When we talk about a counteroffensive we expect that Crimea will be finally liberated. The Russian government has repeatedly stated that it will be a red line and threaten to use nuclear weapons. What is the prevailing position in the West about going to the borders of 1991? And are Americans not afraid of Russian nuclear power?

No, I don’t think we’re afraid of Russians nuclear power. What we really are concerned with is the use of nuclear weapons. Because of the devastating effect it has on the people. And it’s nuclear weapons don’t necessarily just affect the soldiers on the battlefield, it has a devastating effect, as you know, everybody knows, effect on the civilian population. And so that’s a game changer, that’s the red line, I think, for the Western world. I truly believe that. I don’t think Russia believes that that’s the red line for their nuclear weapons either. I think that there was a huge movement within Russia to not use nuclear weapons of any type at any time. And I also think that, and I said this at the very beginning that it is the people of Russia that are going to make a difference. And I believe that they’re starting to make that difference as this war goes on. And by difference, I mean, they’re the ones that are going to push for peace because I believe they’re getting war wary also. And they’re getting tired of watching their young men and women go off to war. And it’s so it’s some point in time, I believe that’s going to be the changing moment in this war is the Russian people.

Let’s talk about peace. How do you think is it possible to guarantee the impossibility of new aggression by Russia after Ukrainians victory in the war – is demilitarization of Russian federation necessary?

I’m always cautious about demilitarization. If we look back at history and we see after World War I the demilitarization and the economic sanctions that were placed on Germany. You can see how that moved them to World War II, because it was absolutely devastating – economically devastating to them and their people. And there’s a lot of other things, of course, that went with that. But so I’m very cautious on that countries need to have a capability to defend themselves. Not necessarily have the capability to attack, but to defend themselves, and so I think at the end of the day here when this starts to the treaty begins to start forming, I think that’s what you’ll see more of. The capability to defend themselves and relining of Crimea and the boundaries in Ukraine.

Let’s talk about the US elections which are coming. Washington is the main source of weapons for Ukraine. However, the US election campaign officially starts next year, and positions on the war in Ukraine are very different. In your opinion, is there a possibility that military support from US partners will decrease?

I don’t think so. I think there’s We will hear a lot of hyperbole. We will hear a lot of political speak. But at the end of the day, I feel like there’s a lot more support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and their ability to defend themselves. And I don’t think that’s going to wane regardless of the political person and or the politician in charge at the time.

The Financial Times writes that Biden’s most likely opponent will be Republican Donald Trump, who criticizes the US’s indefinite support for the war. How do Americans themselves feel about Trump’s position and what is the dominant mood in society right now?

Well, it’s so I think you have to separate what anti-war is, and what the feeling of “we don’t want war anymore.” So this was not anti-war anti-Ukrainian. Just like, you know, many people in the region, we just don’t want the war to continue on, and I think that’s the prevailing feeling within America. As far as politicians go that run for office and the former president Trump, you know, if you go to history and things that he has said and he is done, he also is against war. And I think he’s against war from a more humanitarian perspective. And so when he speaks, he speaks of trying to broker a deal to come to some type of peaceful resolution. And he’s always been that way, but that doesn’t mean that we should look at that as him saying that he’s not going to support Ukraine. I don’t think that’s what he’s saying, it’s not what he’s done in the past. So I believe that regardless of what happens politically, Ukraine will still see that the majority of the people here in America are on the side of Ukraine and would like a peaceful resolution to this war.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he wants to achieve victory in the war in 2024 before the US elections. Do you think the results of the war could affect the outcome of the US elections, and vice versa?

Yeah, everything and anything affects our elections here in America as the world has seen in the past two elections. It’s hard to really say which way that goes. It’s hard to say if it’s gonna go for one candidate or the other, but everything in anything affects it. I think what’s important is that, President Zelensky has a plan. And I think it’s important that he has to understand for all of us how he has been able to galvanize the world to support him in his efforts. And as long as you have a leader of this type. As long as he is out front leading the way he is, I think you will continue to find that you have support for Ukraine and the war effort.

(Mike Robinson for Radio Free Ukraine)