"The ugly truth: Russia is still on the rise"

Created: 12/17/2022, 11:50 am

By: Lucas Maier

Andy Milburn, commander of the so-called Mozart Group, speaks in an exclusive interview about the training of Ukrainian armed forces.

And he makes it clear what Kyiv needs in the fight against Russia.

Andy Milburn, you're the commander of the so-called Mozart group.

What brought her to Ukraine?

At first I went to Ukraine as a freelance journalist.

That was in the first week of March.

It quickly became clear to me that I was needed more urgently elsewhere.

A friend of mine from the Ukrainian special forces asked me for help.

At that time Russia began the siege of Kyiv. 

You yourself were in Kyiv at the time.

What was the biggest challenge?

At the outset of the Russian incursion, defense was largely in the hands of civilians.

Many do not know this, but the territorial defense units were recruited from the civilian population.

It wasn't the Ukrainian military that stopped the Russian soldiers and tanks and drove them out in the end, it was ordinary people.

Two weeks earlier they were still students or employees.

The Ukrainian military not only faced the Russian attack, but also had to get the territorial defense units combat-ready.

They had to start from scratch and first learn how to use the weapons.

This applied to the standard equipment as well as to special systems such as anti-tank weapons.

The latter played a crucial role in the defense of Kyiv.

But there wasn't much time to learn all that.

Volunteers training the so-called Mozart Group, photographed in September 2022. © Juan Barreto / AFP

Ukraine war: "You are brave, but very fresh"

How does it look today?

The time for training is still very short.

The majority of recruits are untrained by Western standards.

So not poorly or insufficiently trained, but really untrained.

They are brave, but very fresh.

The brigade commanders are aware of this, but they cannot withdraw their people from the front for any length of time.

Russia is constantly attacking.

There have been recent successes in Cherson and Kharkiv, but the ugly truth is that Russian troops are still advancing.

In order to fill the gap in training opportunities, did the so-called Mozart group come into being?

Yes.

I formed a training group with a small team of ex-Marines and army people, all special forces.

With this group we started training civilians for their use in territorial defense.

Sometimes we only had five days for the training.

That's an absurdly short period of time.

We trained in groups of between 120 and 150 people.

After that, the units received the Mozart patch, got into their private civilian cars and drove to Bucha to fight Russian soldiers there.

That was around the end of March.

What were the biggest difficulties at that time?

We faced a whole range of challenges.

Russian forces poured rockets and artillery fire into Kyiv.

We set up shooting ranges and training areas.

The budding territorial defense units had to learn how to shoot, move around urban terrain, and communicate on the job.

But every time we set up such a training ground, Russia got wind of it, either through collaborators or their own intelligence.

The result was artillery fire on our location.

It was a very difficult situation.

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Mozart Group: “We are not mercenaries.

We don't go to war for money"

What happened after the liberation of Kiev in early April?

After the troops were driven out of the capital, we moved further north.

We trained in Bucha shortly after the place was liberated.

There we became the first international eyewitnesses to the massacre of civilians that later made headlines around the world.

This sight encouraged us to keep going.

Of course, we knew beforehand that the Russian soldiers were doing terrible things, but none of us expected such a level of cruelty.

Before the massacres were discovered, no one believed that this violence was so institutionalized.

That was also the time when our group got its name.

The Mozart group is often mentioned in the same breath as the notorious Wagner group.

You have repeatedly emphasized in the past that the comparison is incorrect.

What's the difference?

We are not mercenaries.

We don't go to war for money like the private armies of Blackwater or the Wagner Group do.

We are mature, retired professionals, most of whom are in their 30's or 40's.

We carry no weapons and we do not engage in combat.

In Ukraine, our focus is on two things.

We train Ukrainian soldiers near the front lines and evacuate civilians who are still in the cities.

We also deliver humanitarian aid to these regions.

There are many NGOs active in the Ukraine war.

At what point does their job end and where does yours begin?

All other NGOs operate at most to the furthest point that can be hit by Russian artillery, currently in Kramatorsk in the Donbass, for example.

With our relief supplies, we supply between 20 and 25 percent of the population that is still in cities on the front lines.

Currently in Bachmut, among other places.

People in these regions seek shelter in basements.

They lack water, food, electricity and heating.

These areas are under constant artillery fire.

We are the only organization that goes to these areas to distribute relief supplies to the people and, if necessary, to evacuate them if they want.

We've been doing this since the beginning of the war.

Training for the Ukraine War: Training in the Donbass just behind the front lines

What is your training program like today?

We have constantly adapted and expanded our training.

We now have three teams based in Kyiv, in Donbass and near the southern front line.

In the Donbass, we train, among other things, the 1st Presidential Brigade, as well as the 58th and 93rd Brigades.

These are the units that bear the brunt of the fighting.

Since the beginning of the Donbass offensive, these units have lost between 70 and 80 percent of their ranks.

What is the so-called Mozart Group currently doing apart from its two main tasks?

We have recently been offering civilian training courses in Eastern Europe.

Primarily for reporters and journalists, but also for aid organizations.

This is not weapon training, but help to minimize risk.

We also offer escorts for press representatives and civil organizations close to the front, also unarmed.

For security reasons, a background check is required for this, which is why further information about these training courses is only released on request.

On the one hand, we do this work to generate money for other missions, since we are otherwise financed purely by donations.

On the other hand, it is important to us that journalists are on site.

We are convinced that the press is the watchdog of any democracy.

The world should see what is happening in Ukraine.

To person

Andy Milburn served in the US Marines for 31 years.

He spent the last ten years of his service in the Special Operations Command.

He has commanded the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq since 2016 and became Deputy Commander of the Special Operations Command Center.

This command was responsible for all special operations in the Middle East, primarily targeting the Islamic State.

Since retiring from the Army in 2019, Milburn has served as a military affairs consultant with a focus on special operations.

Today he is leader of the Mozart group.

Attack on the civilian population in the Ukraine war: No accident - but political calculation

You spoke of an institutionalization of the atrocities, such as in Bucha.

What does that mean in the Ukraine war?

The Russian attacks on civilian targets are not what we understand as collateral damage.

They don't happen by accident.

It's part of Russian politics and it's part of military strategy.

This applies to the massacres in Bucha as well as to the air and artillery strikes against civilian targets.

According to conservative estimates, around 20,000 civilians were killed in Mariupol.

Whole settlements were simply destroyed.

There are reports of institutionalized torture.

These are not solely the actions of soldiers who have lost their minds, this is part of an institutional approach to warfare.

The massive attacks on energy infrastructure just before winter are also part of this warfare.

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Weapons for Ukraine: "A handful of HIMARS systems are just a drop in the bucket"

The West provides support to Ukraine.

Among other things, in the form of training programs.

What is the most urgent need right now?

What is needed in Ukraine is on-site training.

We are an organization that has so far only been able to close gaps in this area.

Institutionalized training is necessary.

We could do that, for example, on behalf of Western governments or together with NATO.

With sufficient funding, each brigade could be assigned a front-line training team.

That would make a real difference.

The West also supplies arms to Ukraine.

Is the support sufficient?

NATO and the West must finally work seriously towards Ukraine winning this war.

This does not mean that troops need to be sent to Ukraine.

But the weapon shipments we've seen so far, such as a handful of HIMARS systems, are just a drop in the bucket.

Ukraine's western partners need to start flooding the country with these systems.

Ukraine also needs long-range missiles and long-range drones.

I think it's good that the US now wants to supply Patriot missiles, but a lot more of them are needed.

They don't necessarily have to be the most expensive, high-end systems, but they have to be enough to cover the entire frontline and infrastructure facilities of Ukraine.

Germany has also supplied weapon systems to Ukraine.

In the discussion about this, Chancellor Olaf Scholz repeatedly pointed out that the Ukrainian armed forces are used to Soviet systems and that an exchange of rings is therefore necessary.

Do you think this argument makes sense?

That's ridiculous.

Ukrainians are very technologically savvy.

They are extremely adaptable in combat, and that's not due to their pre-war military.

It is due to the flood of young men and women who are learning very quickly.

(Interview: Lucas Maier)

Editor's Note:

This is the first part of IPPEN.MEDIA's exclusive interview with Andy Milburn.

In the second part, read the experiences of the founder of the Mozart Group during a visit to Bakhmut on the front lines of the Ukraine war.