What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
An American mercenary is reportedly attempting to export vulnerable Afghan refugees who have fled the Taliban and are currently residing in Pakistan, using counterfeit Pakistani passports. It raises questions about Pakistan’s claimed neutrality in the conflict – is the country complicit in this plan?”
This revelation was brought to light by the US media, in an interview of a former construction worker-turned-mercenary Ryan Routh. An American from Greensboro, North Carolina, Ryan Routh brazenly bragged to the NYT about his plans to recruit fighters for Ukraine from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. He revealed that he was going to purchase passports from Pakistan in order to facilitate the plot. Routh spent several months in Ukraine last year.
He plans to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. Routh said dozens had expressed interest in the plan. “We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan since it’s such a corrupt country’’, Routh said in the interview.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is struggling to defend itself against Russia due to in-fighting among mercenaries. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for help in February 2022, thousands of mercenaries and fighters *from the Western countries* showed up.
Many fighters were with problematic past, including fabricated military records, enrolled in the International Legion and several other volunteer groups. These homespun groups of volunteers have started fighting among themselves, undermining the war effort, wasting money, illegally exporting military technology and cloaking themselves in charity while also trying to profit from the war .
One American, James Vasquez, a Connecticut home improvement contractor, is accused of misusing donations received for the war. Vasquez used his story to receive donations, claiming that he was in Kuwait during Desert Storm, and in Iraq after 9/11. However, as per Pentagon, Vasquez was never deployed to Kuwait, Iraq, or anywhere else.
He specialised in fuel and electrical repairs and left the Army Reserve not as a sergeant as he claimed, but as a private first class, one of the Army’s lowest ranks. Vasquez had easy access to weapons, including American rifles, and fought alongside Da Vinci’s Wolves, a Ukrainian far-right group.
Pakistan has on several occasions directly and indirectly provided military support to Ukraine in the last year of the war. Despite official denials, Pakistan is suspected of indirectly arming Ukraine against Russia at the behest of America.
In October 2022, the United Kingdom allegedly put together an air bridge between Pakistan and Romania and delivered classified cargo, triggering speculation that London may have purchased the shells from Islamabad and delivered them to Kyiv. Previously, there were reports that Pakistan had promised 10,000 rockets for Grad multi-barrel rocket launchers and 44 T-80 tanks in exchange for Western assistance. Pakistan, discredited for being a terror sponsor worldwide, has left no stone unturned to regain its status as a reliable and faithful western ally using the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In 2021, Ukraine laid the red carpet for General Bajwa during his visit to the country. He was presented a guard of honour by a “smartly turned out military contingent’’. Following that, Bajwa began issuing strong statements against Moscow and calling the war in Ukraine “an invasion” by the Kremlin that “needed to be stopped immediately’’.
During the peak of its conflict with Russia, the US, and its allies were reluctant to supply fighter jets to Ukraine, however, a British Pakistani billionaire Mohammad Zahoor, stepped in to provide fighter jets to help in their war against Russians last year.
Although Islamabad is trying to balance its relationship with Kremlin by committing itself to import crude oil from Russia, but it has been dillydallying on its promise, indicating that its priority remains the US-led NATO and Ukraine over Moscow.
