A white dust swirls up in the empty street, so straight that it seems to have been drawn with a ruler. Despite the night, the heat is overwhelming, it’s like a western. In fact, it is a small town – whose name we will not name for safety’s sake – in the Donetsk region, in the Ukrainian Donbass, not far from the front line of the Russian troops. Amidst the low buildings stands a hotel, the kind of family run business with ruched drapes that the war gives an oddly quirky vibe.
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A nearby bombardment brought out the customers just before midnight, international humanitarian workers, special envoys or soldiers on leave. Among them, a small team decides to provide first aid: the Mozart Group, an American private military company (SMP) with about thirty volunteers. All elite troops veterans.
“Here we are doing the work that Washington cannot do. The Pentagon breaks free by saying it has nothing to do with us. He’s also right: it’s the strict truth,” explains Andy Milburn, an American colonel who retired after 31 years in the Marines and founder of the group. Especially since 2001, private military contractors have spread to high-risk countries from Iraq to Mali, but in Ukraine Mozart’s game may prove even riskier this time.
Andy Millburn, founder of the private American company Mozart Group, during a distribution of food and medicines in Donetsk region, Ukraine, July 29, 2022. SAMUEL GRATACAP FOR THE WORLD
The day after the alert, Andy Milburn and his team embark on a mission to Zaïtseve, a village in the middle of the fighting where some residents still hold on. At each checkpoint, the Mozarts hand out two cans of Coke, that’s their style. That day, there were six of them in two 4×4s, “just to avoid everyone in charge sitting in the same car in case there was an impact”.
Ironic reference to Wagner
The predominantly Anglo-Saxon Mozarts are between 30 and 45 years old. Desbs is the only Frenchman, a Breton, who spent three years in the special forces. At the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he initially wanted to join the battalion of international volunteers. Once there, he hesitated: many novices among the recruits and a six-month compulsory service. Eventually, Desbs joined Mozart, more flexible contracts and like-minded colleagues. “I have the health and the skills: I wouldn’t have been able to look at myself in the mirror if I had stayed on my sofa,” he says. Another volunteer explains that he wants to “help people who have the same enemy as me: the Russians”. Nobody wants to reveal their identity.
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