A military strategist at the Austrian Ministry of Defense said NATO forces are already fighting in Ukraine and on the frontlines as mercenaries when asked about how tanks would be transferred into the country.

Markus Reisner, the colonel, was addressing the AIES Institute and a journalist asked him what troops would be overseeing these transfers. He said he believes a large number of servicemen from NATO countries are fighting alongside Ukrainians. Once these fighters resign and sign on as contract mercenaries, they no longer represent a specific country, he said, Euro Weekly News reported.

Andrei Marochko, an officer of the People’s Militia of the LPR, which is comprised of Russian separatist forces, said he has proof that mercenaries from more than 30 countries are fighting with Ukrainians.

The Mozart Group is a handful of retired Marines that have been inside Ukraine training soldiers. The name was meant to counter the Russian Wagner Group. Mozart said it does not engage in fighting as it does not carry weapons. The group folded last week after an internal conflict among partners.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, said his forces are engaging with Ukrainians in the crucial eastern Ukraine town of Bakhmut. Al Jazeera noted that Prigozhi said seizing the city is key for Russia.

“There are many roads out and fewer roads in. Ukrainian troops are well trained … and like any large city, it is impossible to capture it from head-on. We are managing very well,” he said.

The Pentagon announced in December that it is sending U.S. troops into Ukraine, under the guise that they are going there not to fight, but instead just to track the billions of dollars of weapons the West sent into the country. (See “SENDING TROOPS TO UKRAINE BUT CALL IT SOMETHING ELSE,” 20 Dec 2022.)

NBC News, citing three senior U.S. officials, reported that there is discussion in the White House about sending additional troops into the country to help the U.S. track weapons. The report said there are already U.S. troops in the country, again, under the guise that all they are doing is monitoring weapons.

TRENDPOST: Gerald Celente has said two days before the Ukraine War began, and as the Trends Journal cover illustrates, WWIII has begun. 

And that contrary to reports that the U.S. is in a “proxy” war with Russia, Washington is currently at war with the Kremlin. He said it will only become “official” after the first nuclear flash or a disastrous false flag event.

NATO has followed the U.S.’s path to war. Indeed, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said in December that there is a real possibility that NATO goes to war with Russia over Ukraine.

“It is a terrible war in Ukraine,” he said. “It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between NATO and Russia. We are working on that every day to avoid that.”

He said if things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong.

Ukraine is not a full NATO member and has been denied access by the alliance. (See “NATO’S STOLTENBERG SAYS ALL-OUT WAR WITH RUSSIA IS POSSIBLE,” 13 Dec 2022.) 

NATO announced Sunday that Stoltenberg has “no intention” of extending his tenure.

TREND FORECAST: Doubling down on Celente’s WWIII forecast, on Monday, Infowars wrote that a French historian who accurately predicted the fall of the Soviet Union over a decade in advance says that World War III has already begun as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

The comments were made by Emmanuel Todd, one of France’s leading intellectuals, during an interview with the Le Figaro newspaper.

“It is evident that the conflict, initially a limited territorial war, has evolved into a global economic confrontation between the whole West on one side, and Russia, backed by China, on the other. It has become a world war,” Todd said.

Todd added that “the resistance of the Russian economy is pushing the U.S. imperial system toward the abyss” and that Biden must “hurry” to rescue a “fragile” America.