Six Ukrainians, an American, and a North East security nightmare for India
The NIA's arrest of six Ukrainians and US operative Matthew VanDyke reveals how India's northeast has become a corridor for mercenaries arming Myanmar's rebels
It is thought that Western war veterans, who have fought in Ukraine, may be using Mizoram to reach conflict zones in Myanmar. File photo shows Ukrainian soldiers learning combat techniques from US national Matthew VanDyke's private combat-mercenary firm, Sons of Liberty International. Image: Facebook/SOLI
Frederick Forsyth's Dogs of War is coming alive along the North East's long border with Myanmar. Western mercenaries, possibly supported by shady intelligence agencies, are smuggling weapons and sneaking in through India to train and arm multiple local insurgent groups fighting Myanmar’s China-backed military junta.
Some would call it the latest edition of the 'Great Game' on the borderlands of South and South East Asia. A Big Power rivalry involving Western powers like US and a rising China, a nagging civil war between Myanmar’s military junta and the country's many ethnic rebel armies and neighbouring countries like India, Bangladesh and Thailand at their wits' end, to avoid getting dragged into a forever conflict.
7 foreigners in NIA remand
The arrest of six Ukrainians and one US national by India's anti-terror body, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), from different Indian cities this month has finally blown the lid on a major covert operation, involving Western mercenaries using North East states to transit to Myanmar to help rebel groups fighting the military junta in the ongoing civil war.
A special NIA court in New Delhi has remanded the seven foreigners — six Ukrainians and one American — for 11 days into NIA custody until March 27. The hearing was held in a closed courtroom, and the NIA, as of now, seems keen to keep it all under wraps.
Three Ukrainians were arrested in Delhi, and three in Lucknow, and the US citizen was nabbed from Kolkata airport. NIA sources say the seven came to India on valid visas but surreptitiously entered Mizoram without the mandatory Restricted Area Permit ( RAP).
Close links to Myanmar rebels
NIA officials say these seven were closely connected with ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar and had used the hilly state to slip illegally into the neighbouring country.
They have also smuggled huge numbers of portable combat drones into Myanmar for use by rebels against the Myanmarese army, Tatmadaw.
While the arrested Ukrainians have been identified as Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor, not much is known about their backgrounds. But, the US national arrested in Kolkata is a colourful character called Matthew Aaron VanDyke.
The VanDyke story
VanDyke is the founder of Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), an allegedly private combat-mercenary firm used by US intelligence to train and arm rebel groups waging military campaigns against established regimes that Washington seeks to topple.
He first shot into the limelight when he fought alongside the anti-Gaddafi Libyan National Liberation Army ( NLA) in 2010-11. He was imprisoned by government forces but escaped. VanDyke has trained and fought with Islamist rebels that toppled the Assad regime in Syria and also ran operations with Ukrainian special forces against Russia.
VanDyke has also been a journalist, writer and documentary filmmaker, says his website. It is strongly suspected that he was the brain behind drafting dozens of Ukrainians, experienced veterans in the war against Russia, to train and fight alongside ethnic rebels in Myanmar.
'Christmas with a difference'
This writer first reported two years ago about Western mercenaries entering Myanmar through Mizoram, posing as tourists to spend "a Christmas with a difference". A suspected British mercenary, Daniel Newey, was arrested with ammunition at Aizawl airport on June 19, 2024, while on his way back home after a few months with Chin rebel groups in Myanmar.
Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Lalduhoma referred to Newey's arrest in a press conference, but no details of his prosecution could be found.
Last March, Belgian national Simon Clemente was arrested at Aizawl airport, again with ammunition in his luggage. He claimed to be a photojournalist but failed to explain the presence of ammunition on his person. He was accquited after 85 days in prison.
Chief Minister's admission
In the same month, Lalduhoma caused a flutter by claiming that Western war veterans, who have fought in Ukraine, may be using his state to reach conflict zones in Myanmar. "We have specific intelligence that the Ukraine war veterans travelled to Myanmar’s Chin State via Mizoram to train rebel outfits fighting the military junta,” he told the 40-member Assembly on March 10 last year, clearly suggesting the Myanmar conflicts was spilling over into India’s North East.
That the Chief Minister made the statement on record in the Mizoram state assembly, stressing on 'specific intelligence', assumes greater significance because he is a former IPS officer with thorough knowledge of security issues and extensive contacts in the intelligence agencies.
While the early crop of western mercenaries were perhaps mostly Americans and British, usually with an early career background in special forces, the recent crop seems to be more diverse.
Sources in three ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar confirmed that atleast 15 to 20 Ukrainian mercenaries were currently training Kachin, Chin, PDF and Arakanese rebels in the use of combat drones. That is the only way the rebel forces could offset the advantage of airpower enjoyed by the Myanmarese military.
Ukrainian connection
It is possible that someone like VanDyke, with his long Ukraine connection, could be behind such recruitments, but one can never rule out that it might also be a conscious strategy of the Western intelligence agencies to bring the Ukrainians to train Myanmar rebels in drone warfare for two reasons.
In the first place, the Ukrainian drone specialists have the best hands-on combat experience. Secondly, if they fall into enemy hands, they cannot be traced back to Western countries like the US, who have a strong desire to ensure the defeat of the Myanmarese military junta to upset China's applecart.
A drone attack last month by Kachin rebels on Myitkina airport, which severely damaged an ATR 72 aircraft of Myanmar National Airways (MNA), points to the growing prowess of rebel groups in Myanmar in the use of combat drones.
The NIA officials have alleged that the seven suspected mercenaries, including VanDyke, were involved in large-scale illegal smuggling of drones into Myanmar using the borderlands of North East India. These drones are split up to avoid detection but are then reassembled in the combat zones before use, an expertise possibly passed on to the rebels after extensive hands-on training by the likes of VanDyke and the Ukrainians.
After all, even Israel has sought Ukrainian expertise now to counter the barrage of Iranian drones. These were extensively used by Russia against Ukraine since Putin's invasion.
Implications for India
The Indian crackdown on the suspected Western mercenaries is perhaps driven by two major worries.
Firstly, some of the Myanmar rebel groups trained by these mercenaries have close links with anti-Indian rebels in the North East. The ULFA and the NSCN have had close links with the Kachin Independence Army.
Secondly, mercenaries training Myanmar rebels could also end up training and equipping anti-Indian rebels based in Myanmar. The recent use of drones by Kuki rebels in September 2024 to drop payloads on target villages in Manipur have been watched with concern.
If the civil war in Myanmar continues to fester and global actors are drawn into the conflict, the spillover effect on North East India cannot be overlooked by Delhi.
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