One of the great mysteries surrounding the Maidan coup and the civil war which has followed is how the rabble of soccer hooligans and neo-Nazis who orchestrated the coup were able to become an army capable of subjugating the nation so quickly.

Despite Western narratives, the Maidan was a violent coup, and their government was imposed on most of the nation by force. However, 70% of the Ukrainian Army deserted or defected after the coup. This left the new government with both a great need for soldiers and very few of them at its disposal.

The solution was to deputize the fascists who had served as storm troopers in the Maidan, but these were drunken brawlers and petty criminals, not soldiers. How can a gang of street fighters be turned, in a matter of months, into the brutal Special Tasks Patrol police who terrorized Ukraine on a scale not seen since the 1940s?

As it turns out, they had a good teacher: an American paratrooper by the name of Brian Boyenger.

The Swarm

“Men, it is time to go hunting. You’re the hunter. You’re the predator. You’re looking for the prey. Rakkasans!” – Col. Michael D. Steele

Brian Boyenger did not come out of the womb as a killer. He was a normal young man in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, before he joined the U.S. Army. It was there that he learned his trade, working under one of the most brutal commanders in the Army. Like many young Americans, he joined the Army in the wake of America’s illegal full-scale invasion of Iraq and was deployed in the country for 14 months starting in 2006 as part of the 3^rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101^st Airborne Division. The 3^rd BCT is the remnant of the former 187^th Airborne, also known as “Rakkasans,” which was merged into the 101^st but retained its traditions.

His first lesson was Operation Swarmer, a so-called counter-terrorism operation in outlying villages near the city of Samarra, Iraq. True to the name, 1,500 Iraqi and American forces descended on the region like a swarm of locusts. The U.S. and its associated propagandists touted the operation as the largest air assault since 2003, and even George W. Bush mentioned the operation as a great triumph.

It was anything but.

Despite ominous (and entirely unsourced) claims of insurgent leadership in the raided villages, U.S. and Iraqi forces found nothing of value. Of the 48 people detained by force, 17 were released immediately, and the rest were illegally detained and then sent to prisons and black sites where torture is rampant. Iraqi intelligence claimed that several hundred weapons and bombs were found in the searches, but no evidence was ever provided of this and none of those arrested was ever charged. Journalists were not allowed to accompany the troops on this operation and were only brought in after the raid was mostly finished to witness some carefully staged propaganda.

They watched as American and Iraqi forces ransacked a family farm, making note of the emaciated cattle juxtaposed against the multibillion-dollar war machine tearing apart the modest home. Despite all their effort, the Americans and their lackeys found no weapons, no people of interest, and no contraband at this home. However, they did not leave empty-handed. After they kidnapped a family by force, raided their home, and held them on their knees at gunpoint, they helped themselves to the dinner the Iraqis were cooking before their lives were interrupted by terrorists.

American forces were baffled as to why they met no resistance on this raid. They concluded that the terrorists must have been tipped off and fled the area rather than admit the truth that they had raided and pillaged peaceful villages for no reason. American forces claimed that they did not fire a shot, and neither side sustained any casualties. As was usual for America’s illegal war, this was a lie.

Before the operation, American forces bombed the region for several nights in a row. In one instance, American forces bombed a home killing 11 civilians and two cows with a single strike. Five of those killed were children. The Americans said that they were suspected al-Qaeda, a charge for which no evidence was ever provided.

“The killed family was not part of the resistance, they were women and children, The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death.” – Ahmed Khalaf, brother of one of the victims

As they were wont to do, the captive media establishment simply accepted the Army at their word and thereby helped launder a terrorist raid on innocent civilians into a triumphant operation. The media’s refusal to confront the military on their deadly lies created a culture of impunity which perhaps made the 3^rd BCT feel comfortable enough to commit their next crime, knowing that no one would dare challenge them.

The unit was commanded by Colonel Michael D. Steele, a veteran of America’s disastrous Somalia intervention immortalized in the film Black Hawk Down. He was known as a brutal, aggressive commander who kept kill tallies and awarded custom-engraved knives as prizes to the soldiers who had killed the most people while threatening any who refused or hesitated.

Steele encouraged his men to carry out extreme violence without hesitation, teaching them that they were hunters, apex predators, and “carnivores.” He replaced language training with marksmanship, redirected all resources from development to security, and ordered soldiers to raze Iraqi homes to the ground on their raids. He ordered his men to shoot only to kill and never fire warning shots; to prepare them, he implemented a training he called “Psychological Inoculation of Combat.”

In other words, Steele had his soldiers visit morgues and ride with ambulances to desensitize them to the sight of dead bodies so they would not hesitate in battle. He even encouraged his soldiers to fight among themselves, orchestrating brawls and fistfights in the unit to weed out any “herbivores” who would not subscribe to his murderous ideology.

Day and night, body bags containing “high-value targets” killed in raids were brought back to the unit’s base where Steele personally and dutifully photographed and cataloged the dead for his killboards. However, even at the best of times, it is estimated that 90% of the Iraqis targeted by American intelligence were innocent, with little to no evidence of any misdeeds ever presented. These so-called high-value targets murdered by Steele’s thugs for prizes were usually little more than civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The raids they carried out as part of Operation Swarmer were only a dress rehearsal for the real show, Operation Iron Triangle. On May 6, 2006, the 3^rd BCT descended from their helicopters onto an island in the south of Lake Thantar, Iraq, near the site of a former chemical weapons plant. The factory was long abandoned, but the surrounding area had been reclaimed by local farmers.

According to American intelligence, there was an al-Qaeda training camp in the region, so the 3rd BCT was sent in to destroy it, capture the al-Qaeda fighters and collect evidence of any terrorist activity.

They needed to look no further than the mirror. In the mission briefing, Col. Steele had given them a very simple assignment: Kill all “military-age,” a term so broad it can apply to nearly anyone. A group of soldiers did their duty to the fullest, kidnapping an Iraqi family of four in front of their spouses and mothers, then staging an escape to give it legitimacy before they executed the bound prisoners as they ran away. The bodies brought back for Steele’s killboards that night ranged from a 13-year-old child to a 75-year-old grandfather named Jasim Hassan Komar-Abdullah whose dentures fell out as Steele tried to pose his body for pictures.

Eventually, the soldiers responsible for these murders were brought to trial. Squad leader Sgt. Raymond Girouard, who gave the order to fire and tampered with the bodies to make it look like an escape, was sentenced to 10 years but paroled in less than three.

Both the shooters, PFC Corey Clagett and Specialist William Hunsaker were given a sentence of 18 years and paroled in 10. Clagett showed no remorse and said if he had it to do over again, he would have shot the women, too. Despite testimony from all the soldiers saying he had ordered them to kill all adult males and clear evidence of his fostering a culture where acts of terror were encouraged, Col. Steele was not charged with any crimes and was only reprimanded.

“[Sgt. Raymond Girouard] said we were going to kill the detainees, cut the zip ties off and make it look like they ran, and he said Hunsaker and Clagett were going to do it. I didn’t say anything. Hunsaker didn’t say anything. I pulled the blindfold up on one guy, down on the other. Hunsaker took his [detainee’s blindfold] off. Hunsaker told them to ‘Run.’ I told them ‘Yalla’ to get them to run faster. They didn’t run faster, so I raised my weapon. Hunsaker raised his. He shot then I shot. The way Sgt. G. ran his squad, I thought it was basically like an initiation if I wanted to be in 3rd squad. [Girouard] shut the [Humvee] door, locked it, booby-trap locked it, and said if I ever say anything—he put his weapon to me and he said if I ever say anything that he will kill me. That is what the Army is, a big gang.” – Corey Claggett, in testimony at his trial

Operation Iron Triangle started as the sort of terroristic raid that U.S. forces carried out on a nearly daily basis in Iraq. Much as it had been with previous cases like My Lai in Vietnam, this sort of violence was the norm for American forces in Iraq, and it was unique only because this time the soldiers were caught.

After spending more than a year under the tutelage of Col. Steele, Brian Boyenger was a seasoned terrorist when he arrived in Ukraine. He wasted little time in demonstrating his skills to the Ukrainian people.

Washington’s Wolf

“We were always in contact with this Bryan, he was a man of Mamulashvili. It was he who gave the orders. I had to follow all his instructions” – Koba Nergadze, Georgian mercenary and sniper

After he returned from Iraq, there is a gap in Boyenger’s history spanning the years between the Iraq war and the 2014 Maidan coup. Boyenger says he left the army at the rank of Specialist, enrolled in college, and was a student until he saw the Maidan protests and was so inspired by the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian people, he went to the embassy to ask how he could help. In his story, the process took some time to clear the legal hurdles, and he only arrived in 2015 to serve as a military instructor.

Russian sources claim that he continued his military service and entered special forces, working all over the world with Delta Force and the CIA’s Special Activities Division as a commando and sniper before his deployment to Ukraine.

Due to the nature of these sorts of units, such an accusation can never be proven. Some sources have blamed Boyenger for attacks as varied as assassinations of Russian generals, the car bombing of Daria Dugina, and the destruction of the Kerch Bridge. These embellishments are almost certainly exaggerated if not entirely false.

Regardless, Boyenger’s story is suspicious, and his actions in Ukraine are even more so. There is strong circumstantial evidence that, although he may not be Rambo, Boyenger is much more than he says.

At the time Boyenger left for Ukraine, it was illegal for foreigners to join the Ukrainian Army. A special legal dispensation was made for Boyenger. It seems unlikely that the Ukrainian Army would bother to jump such legal hurdles for a low-ranking enlisted paratrooper with about a year of combat experience unless he brought something else to the table.

Furthermore, there is evidence that Boyenger was in Ukraine much earlier than he admits. An exposé by Italian journalists led by Gian Micalessin revealed that Boyenger was present in Ukraine as early as February 15, 2014. Georgian mercenaries hired by future Georgian Legion commander Mamuka Mamulashvili all testified that Boyenger was one of the organizers of the infamous Maidan sniper attacks. According to their testimony, in the days leading up to the attack, Boyenger was inseparable from Mamulashvili, and they were ordered to follow his commands.

At the time, Mamulashvili was a little-known figure outside of Georgian and Ukrainian nationalist circles. A former child soldier, an ally of the reviled and deposed ex-Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili and a veteran of both the 1992 and 2008 wars in Georgia, Mamulashvili was on the front lines of the Maidan from the beginning.

Mamulashvili had worked with Ukrainian nationalists before, during the 1992 Abkhaz war he fought as a child soldier alongside the neo-Nazi Argo Battalion, the armed wing of the UNA-UNSO.

Argo worked as mercenaries during the early 1990s and carried out an unsuccessful operation to rescue Mamulashvili and his father from encirclement in Abkhazia. Mamulashvili did not forget their efforts and wasted little time repaying them during the Maidan. UNA-UNSO would later co-found the infamous fascist militia Right Sector alongside a coalition of other right-wing groups.

In early 2014, the ongoing Maidan coup reached a stalemate. Time and bitter cold had driven many of the protesters on both sides back to their homes and the revolution was facing the very real danger of simply fizzling out. To prevent this, Mamulashvili needed a spark of violence to light the fire of revolution. He hatched an audacious plan to fire on the crowds and blame the attacks on the Yanukovych government. His point man for the plan was the U.S. Army-trained sniper, Brian Boyenger.

On February 20, 2014, snipers, allegedly under the direct command of Boyenger, opened fire on the crowds from the Maidan-occupied Kyiv Philharmonic building, killing dozens of both police and protesters. The plan worked, and the sniper attacks were the pivotal moment that gave the Maidan the momentum to finally depose the democratically elected Yanukovych government. While the Maidan forces quickly blamed the government for the attacks, NATO officials suspected a provocation from the beginning.

The attacks remain officially unsolved and, as the Ukrainian government destroyed all evidence, it is unlikely that those responsible will ever be brought to justice.

Mamulashvili has denied his involvement with the sniper attacks and writes off the entire Italian exposé as a Russian intelligence operation. While NATO sources are quick to back him up, their arguments mostly revolve around the journalists responsible working for a paper owned by ex-Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi and Gian Micalessin’s membership in the neo-fascist MSI party as a youth.

They do not mention, however, that it is proven beyond any doubt that Berlusconi was a member of Propaganda Due (aka P2) a fascist-terrorist organization operated by the CIA inside Italy to prevent the country from electing leftist or even moderate politicians. P2 was heavily involved in narcotics and arms trafficking, money laundering on an unprecedented scale, kidnapping, assassination, and at least dozens of proven acts of terrorism resulting in hundreds of known deaths with many more suspected.

For their part, the MSI has been proven in court to be heavily infiltrated and directed by Italian and American intelligence. Because of this, the party was from 1959 strongly pro-NATO and pro-EU. They supported Italian accession to the European monetary system and U.S. missiles in Sicily. The two organizations often worked together as the political and military wing of the CIA’s Operation GLADIO, designed to implement what was known as the “Strategy of Tension,” a terrorist campaign against the cause of Italian democracy.

The MSI has often stood in coalition with Berlusconi and many of its members have gone over to his Forza Italia party, including Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter, Alessandra, who is currently a member of the European Parliament.

It seems unlikely that a lifelong CIA asset and his militantly pro-NATO employee would be working with the Russians to discredit an American-backed coup.

Adding to this, Mamulashvili’s Georgian Legion is rife with neo-Nazis and other fascists from around the world. The organization even uses Paul Gray; an infamous neo-Nazi terrorist who was one of the organizers of the deadly Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, as its English-speaking spokesman. Gray has made dozens of appearances on Fox News, proudly extolling the virtues and combat prowess of the Georgian Legion while begging for more weapons.

While Mamulashvili insists that all Legion recruits are vetted and neo-Nazis or fascists are rejected, Gray’s membership proves the Legion’s “vetting” is little more than PR to assuage the consciences of guilty liberals. Even a cursory Google search would reveal that Gray has been a member of multiple neo-Nazi terrorist groups, such as the Traditionalist Worker’s Party and Atomwaffen, who are infamous for calling in bomb threats against Historically Black Colleges and University’s (HBCU’s).

The implication that Berlusconi or any other fascist would oppose the Maidan or the Georgian Legion on ideological grounds is therefore ridiculous and little more than a desperate act of projection.

It should also be mentioned that the paper responsible for this exposé, now called InsideOver, currently has journalists embedded with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and is actively reporting from the front lines of the conflict. As of the time of this article, they have released 85 videos from Ukraine on their YouTube channel, the vast majority of which were made in collaboration with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Even by the low standards of NATO propaganda, it beggars belief that the Ukrainian military would allow Russian agents into their midst, let alone work alongside them.

Regardless of when he arrived in Ukraine, Brian Boyenger’s hands are not clean. He was instrumental in the training and formation of the various far-right units including Azov, Right Sector, the Georgian Legion, and many others. These units are all credibly accused of countless war crimes, and many of them have even been convicted in Ukrainian courts of crimes as vile as raping children.

In 2015, Boyenger broke his usually immaculate OPSEC to chat with Swedish neo-Nazi and first-generation Azov member Mikael Skillt, once described by the BBC as a “White Power warrior,” for advice on smuggling anti-materiel weapons into Ukraine.

The conversation is clear proof that Boyenger was acting with the knowledge and in the interests of the U.S. government. Boyenger openly discussed smuggling otherwise highly illegal weapons to a known terrorist on a public forum with what he says is State Department approval. Even aside from the obvious implication of the State Department arming Nazi terrorists, it seems very unlikely that a former low-ranking enlisted Army soldier would be getting this sort of approval from the government. Unless, of course, Brian Boyenger is something more than that.

Once he arrived in Ukraine, Boyenger became more difficult to track. Unlike most mercenaries in the country, Boyenger keeps his exploits quiet. He is not the type to upload his war crimes to TikTok or brag about atrocities in interviews. Most of what we know about him is due to his loose-lipped associates and even from the bits and pieces we can gather from second-hand sources, the picture is very grim.

We do know that Boyenger was one of the founding members of the Georgian Legion from their press releases. Interestingly, the Legion repeatedly mentions that Boyenger was a former officer, while Boyenger had claimed to be a specialist in a Legion propaganda video. If Boyenger was indeed an officer, this would mean that his military career continued for years after Iraq, and the fact that he would try to hide this would indicate that he had a part of his military career he did not want to talk about.

Someone is lying, but it is unclear who and for what purpose. Did Mamulashvili lie to make Boyenger seem more important, or did Boyenger lie to conceal that he was far more than a simple soldier? It would not be out of character for Mamulashvili, a man whose past and exploits seem to grow more outrageous with each telling, to lie to the media. The only question is what would he gain for lying in this case?

Does it matter to the readers of Ukrainska Pravda if Brian Boyenger was an officer or a specialist? Would the Ukrainian readers even know the difference? As Boyenger was vetted by both the U.S. and Ukrainian governments, Mamulashvili knows the truth, but only he and Boyenger know if he is telling it or not.

It is unlikely that we will ever learn the truth of this matter. However, we do know some details of Boyenger’s exploits in Ukraine, and this is thanks mostly to his comrade at arms and close friend, a former U.S. Army soldier by the name of Craig Lang. Together, Lang and Boyenger founded a unit made up entirely of criminals, terrorists and neo-Nazis known as Task Force Pluto.

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