Wanted: multilingual former soldiers willing to covertly head into Ukraine for the handsome sum of up to $2,000 (£1,523) per day – plus bonus – to help rescue families from an increasingly grim conflict.
It sounds ripped from the script of an action movie, but the job advert is real – taken from an employment website, Silent Professionals, for those working in the private military and security industry.
And, insiders say, demand is growing. Amid a gut-wrenching war in Ukraine, US and European private contractors say they are increasingly eying opportunities, ranging from ‘extraction’ missions to helping with logistics.
There is “a frenzy in the market” for private contractors in Ukraine today, said Robert Young Pelton, a Canadian American author and expert on private military companies (PMCs).
But the demand for paid security workers – many of them former soldiers with ability to fight and kill – in the midst of a war leaves plenty of room for mistakes, and the potential for bedlam.
