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Russians recruited soldiers into "private army" using former Ukrainian President Poroshenko's name

Saturday, 20 January 2024, 08:54
Russians recruited soldiers into private army using former Ukrainian President Poroshenko's name
Screenshot: video by The Kyiv Independent

Russian provocateurs Vovan and Lexus [Russian government-aligned provocateurs Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov] have been communicating with fighters from the International Legion on behalf of the fifth Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, to "recruit them into a private army" for a "revolution in Ukraine".

Source: The Kyiv Independent

Details: The Kyiv Independent talked to several members of the International Legion.

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One of the ex-fighters mentioned that toward the end of the conversation with "Poroshenko," everything went wrong – the connection was poor, and the video was constantly glitching – the lips of the "fifth president" didn't sync with his words, and some of his gestures seemed repetitive. 

It was also suspicious that the speaker enquired about weak parts on the front line, recruitment into the Legion, military pay, and the troops’ morale.

Three former fighters from the International Legion believed that Poroshenko was forming a personal security battalion and wanted to hire them as officers. The salary would be up to €12,000 per month, several times higher than their pay in the Legion. 

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Then the tone of the conversation changed: speaking poor English, the person on the video referred to President Volodymyr Zelensky as a "dictator" and asked, "Are you ready to stay with me when we will fight against Zelenskyy administration?".

One fighter declined, while the other two agreed. 

Later, the person on the screen said the following, "We will kill this bastard in future". 

There were several calls in which "Poroshenko" was dressed in the same clothes and was in the exact same location.

All three fighters felt something suspicious, but two of them decided to check the contract, and if something was wrong, they would refuse.

Nevertheless, the two fighters still went to Kyiv to Poroshenko's office. There, they were naturally not expected, and nobody allowed them in. They were only told that the video was a fake.

A Google search using the email address they communicated with, p@poroshenko2019.com, would reveal an April tweet from the American cybersecurity firm Proofpoint, stating that the address they were communicating with is linked to the "Russia-aligned TA499 and its malicious social engineering attacks".

In other words, the emails likely came from the Russian provocateur duo known as Vovan and Lexus.

Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, are a Russian duo who have gained notoriety for deceiving prominent public and political figures through embarrassing video and phone calls. 

They are known to have support from the Kremlin even though they deny it. 

Currently, the soldiers are anxiously awaiting the appearance of a video of the conversation on Russian federal channels. The two who agreed to join the "private army" said they were unlikely to be able to stay in Ukraine.

Defence Intelligence and the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already aware of these conversations.

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