Bryan Stern, co-founder of Project Dynamo, an organization dedicated to rescuing US civilians and their “allies” in Ukraine, says there’s “9/11” every day in the country and violence will escalate.
“Russia’s propaganda and war machine is incredibly effective,” said Stern, a former fighter who worked as a first responder in the September 11, 2001 New York attacks, in a statement posted to Project Dynamo on Facebook Thursday after returning to Tampa. After more than five months in Florida, Ukraine.
“We still get punched in the face every week. They hate us and they always try to hurt us, but that’s okay, we’re smart, we play chess, not checkers,” added Project Dynamo co-founder. It was originally created to rescue Americans and American collaborators left behind in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American troops in 2021.
Made up of volunteers, mostly retired military personnel or former combatants, the organization claims to have carried out more than 200 rescue missions in Ukraine since Ukraine was occupied by Russian troops in February.
Among others, babies that American families had in Ukraine with the help of a surrogate mother and were unable to leave that country were rescued, a US-born Ukrainian nuclear scientist living in the Ukrainian-occupied part of the country.
According to Stern, the goal is to continue operating in Ukraine if more donations are received, as no remuneration is charged for tasks performed at the request of relatives or friends of the person in need.
Stern returned to his hometown of Tampa on Wednesday night with a young Michigan man captured in Ukraine on an espionage charge he denied by the Russian military in March.
Kirillo Alexandrov, 27, was caught trying to leave the Ukrainian city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, near the Black Sea, with his Ukrainian wife and mother-in-law.
Alexandrov was accused by the Russians of espionage-related crimes and remained in detention until he returned to Moscow as an alleged US agent. Before that, in May, the organization’s volunteers “stealed” him back to Russia, Stern said at Tampa airport, where he was greeted like a hero. EFE
source: Noticias
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