John, a former International Legion member, was nearing the end of a Zoom call with former president Petro Poroshenko, and things were off. The connection was poor, and the video of Poroshenko kept glitching. His lips didn’t line up with his words. Some of his gestures seemed to repeat.
John was suspicious before the call, but for the past 24 minutes, John’s doubts had grown as “Poroshenko” asked him and two other former Legion members about battle line weaknesses, Legion recruiting, military pay, and troop morale. The three former International Legion fighters believed that Poroshenko was building a personal security battalion and wanted to hire them as officers. The pay would be up to 12,000 euros per month – several times their salary in the Legion.
Then, the tone of the conversation shifted: In broken English, their host called President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” and asked, “Are you ready to stay with me when we will fight against Zelensky administration?”
. . .
As John looked at his phone screen, he was certain that he and the two other men on the call had been duped – their host was clearly not Poroshenko. So, who had they just been talking with? And what was the real reason for the call?