In May of 2025, my Ukrainian business partner passed along a warning: If I didn’t stop pitching our proposed infrastructure security contract, we would both be killed.
This was not my first death threat. Attempts at intimidation are to only be expected in my line of work, which includes providing security in war zones. When your business involves protecting nuclear material near ongoing combat, you expect to live with a certain level of danger. But the corruption and mob-style skullduggery in Ukraine are an absolute disgrace: This is a European country engaged in a war for its very survival — and the beneficiary of well over $100 billion in American aid.
