Mark Gregory Paslawsky codenamed “Franco” graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1981, went to Ranger school and served a decade in the US Army.  He worked in the financial sector on Kiev and after the Russian invasion, volunteered to serve as a private in the Donbass Battalion.  VICE News interviewed him in August.  Paslawsky related that his Ukrainian background and a sense of helplessness and frustration over Ukraine’s worsening situation after Russia’s annexation of Crimea drove him to volunteer.

VICE News reported Paslawsky succumbed to wounds suffered in an attack by Ukrainian forces on the town of Ilovaysk to cut off Donetsk, the rebels’ self-declared capital.  Paslawsky predicted the volunteer battalions that have been a significant addition to Ukrainian forces, would become a threat to Kiev after the rebels were defeated because of a lack of change in Ukraine over the last 20 years.

Food for thought if the Russians don’t invade first…