Against the background of the idea of US President Donald Trump to involve American PMCs in Ukrainian drones as part of security guarantees for Ukraine, the founder of the most famous of them, – Blackwater, became interested.
Who is he and what is he looking for in Ukraine?
Private military companies (PMCs) – are an integral tool of modern wars. For many Ukrainians, this abbreviation is primarily associated with Russian PMK "Wagner", which was subordinate to those close to Putin Evgenia Prigozhin.
There are many other PMCs in the world, but it is considered the largest Blackwater. It was founded by Eric Prince –, a former US Navy officer and now – member of the MAGA community, a sponsor of Trump's presidential campaigns and one of his key unofficial advisers, who, according to the media, has influence to the head of US intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.
Beginning with the two Bush Jr. administrations, Blackwater was the primary recipient of Pentagon money that went into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, mass murder by mercenaries civilians in Baghdad, led to prison terms, congressional investigations and the company being blacklisted. Years later, Trump pardoned all mercenaries involved in the shooting.
Prince is trying to use his closeness to Trump for his own purposes. During his first term, he conducted negotiations with the head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak about purchase of "Motor Sich" and the creation of a consortium in Ukraine for 10 billion dollars. These plans not implemented due to the defeat of the Republican in the 2020 elections.
After Trump returned to the White House, Prince stepped up. He wants get a contract for the mass deportation of migrants from the USA and inflates the topic probable war The US is rich in oil Venezuela. He again interested Ukraine: is studying the possibility of acquiring drone manufacturers, presumably with the consent of the White House.
"Villain of the James Bond films, "opportunist", "the most famous mercenary of our time" – are the most vivid epithets used to describe the founder of Blackwater. How did Prince build one of the world's most famous PMCs and why did he sell it? What unites Ukraine with Haiti as Prince's object of interest and why was he unable to buy Motor Sich?
How Blackwater came about
Eric Prince was born in 1969 in the wealthy family of the founder of the Prince Machine Corporation auto parts manufacturer Edgar Prince.Prince often traveled with his parents. Great impression on him did it a visit to Europe, when his father showed him the Dachau concentration camp, the Berlin Wall and the landing place of the allied troops in Normandy. Eric wanted to become a soldier. He entered the United States Naval Academy, but only studied there for three semesters. Later, he explained that he loved the Navy, but did not like the academy.
Prince went on to attend college. While studying economics, he worked as a paramedic and lifeguard, and after college and school as a candidate officer at the age of 23 became "seal" of the US Navy. During service with the team SEAL 8 he has travelled to Haiti, the Middle East and the Balkans. Later Eric wrote that in Yugoslavia saw the need for private training institutions for special operations.
When his father died in 1995, Eric inherited a significant fortune, completed his military service early and with instructor Al Clark created private training center. Prince became the main investor of the project, having purchased for 6 million dollars. 24 square meters km of land near the Great Dismal Swamp in North Carolina. This gave the company name – Blackwater.
Soon there appeared the first large training ground with shooting complexes, sports simulators and several dozen tactical sites that simulated different combat conditions: from the village to the city square with burned cars. The base was initially unprofitable, but over time up to 30,000 people a year began to visit it.
Two more years later, Blackwater came out from local to national level. In 2000, the American ship USS Cole was blown up off the coast of Yemen. At that time, the company had a permanent contingent, which later became the backbone of the PVC. Most of its members were former "seals", infantrymen or "green berets". Blackwater began training sailors, receiving contract for 35 million dollars.
Another significant moment was terrorist attacks September 11, 2001. The American government began increase sharply investments in security and military training activities, so Prince's company received more and more government contracts.
Initially, the cooperation involved personnel training and street patrolling, followed by – escort of important cargo and delegations and security functions for the CIA.
The peak of the PVC era
The complexity of the tasks increased, and with it – and fees. In a short time, Blackwater turned into one of the main contractors of the US State Department. The company guarded diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan, delivered cargo to the front, trained mercenaries and military personnel, and performed secret CIA tasks.
If in 2000 in Prince's company was government orders for 200 thousand dollars, then in a few years – for 1 billion dollars.
- More than 800 million dollars. fell on two large contracts of the US State Department for the protection of diplomats in Iraq in 2004-2006.
It was then that Blackwater turned into a private army. Its tasks included not only security and logistics, but also participation in combat operations, in particular in Afghanistan and Iraq. At her disposal and under her responsibility were tens of thousands of employees, hundreds of pieces of equipment, her own aircraft fleet and well-armed detachments.
This transformation is considered the peak of Blackwater's development and a symbol of the PVC era. Prince Company it was considered then almost irreplaceable for the Pentagon and the State Department. The company opened a division of scientists and engineers who began to develop various types of weapons and their own transport, including a 14-ton armored car Grizzly.
The confirmation of Blackwater's irreplaceability at that time was its participation in the liquidation of the consequences of the deadly hurricane Katrina in 2005. Mercenaries delivered provisions and water to the victims, rescued the wounded. At the same time, Blackwater was becoming subject investigative journalism and allegations of arms smuggling and abuse of authority. Facts have emerged executions civilian population in Iraq.
Reputational scandal and change of ownership
A real challenge for Blackwater became 2007. On September 16, a convoy of armored mercenary vehicles escorting the cars of US State Department officials in Baghdad shot civilians, killing – and injuring 20.
There were versions that the shooting started as a reaction to the movement of a presumably car bomb, but later appeared confirmationthat one of the fighters continued to shoot even despite calls from colleagues to cease fire. The mercenary stopped only when his colleague aimed his weapon at him. Three others who watched the incident reported seeing no reason to shoot.
An international scandal broke out, investigations began and courts. The PMC suspended its license to work in Iraq, causing it to lose tens of millions of dollars, and four mercenaries were sentenced to long terms behind bars (Trump pardoned them in 2020). Mass murder happened symbol problems of uncontrollability and raised the question of the expediency of the existence of private armies.
Added to the criticism were the lawsuits of Iraqi civilians who accused Blackwater of killing and injuring their relatives. To save his image, Prince left the position of CEO in 2009, and after another 1.5 years sold the company to a group of investors. In 2009, it was renamed Xe Services LLC, and two years later – to Academi with new management and promises to start with a "clean slate".
In 2014, Academi united with the large security company Triple Canopy, forming the holding Constellis Group. Blackwater as a separate structure disappeared.
Cooperation with the Chinese
After the scandals in Iraq, Prince distanced himself from Blackwater. Having sold PVC, he invested he founded a company in technological startups Frontier Services Group (FSG) in Hong Kong. The firm engaged in security and logistics in risky regions, mainly in Africa, often in cooperation with Chinese government structures.
Trump's adviser and an attempt to enter Ukraine
After the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine in 2014, information began to appear in foreign media about the alleged participation of Academi fighters in the ATO. Company is refuted.Prince became one of the sponsors and MAGA associates Trump during his first term. Then his sister Betsy Devos headed the US Department of Education. With a background in security, Eric became an unofficial adviser to Trump. He in particular conducted negotiations about the purchase of Motor Sich. Then it lasted epic with the potential sale of company shares to the Chinese and the White House longed block deal.
Prince then visited Ukraine and communicated with local officials regarding Motor Sich. After all, in the background US pressure Ukraine blocked sale of company shares to the Chinese, and after the start of the great war, the factory nationalized.
- In 2021 The Economist he wrote that the American's ambitions were not limited to the factory in Zaporizhzhia.
- He wanted to take control of the Antonov plant and create a vertically integrated one holding, attract investments and contracts worth 10 billion dollars. and become a competitor for Boeing and Airbus.
"If Trump had been re-elected for another four years, Prince would probably have closed that deal", – spoke then Novikov. It happened differently: Joe Biden won the 2020 elections in the USA.
In Kyiv then they were afraid that ex-deputies Andriy Artemenko and Andriy Derkach were in contact with Prince. Last Washington introduced to the list of Russian agents. Both – are involved in the investigation into Russian interference in the US elections. Derkach fled Ukraine and entered to the Security and Defense Committee of the Council of Federations of the Russian Federation.
How Prince became interested in drones
Drone use program against band, of which Prince is a key adviser, has sparked a lot of debate after police officers were killed in one such operation. Mercenaries criticize for lack of coordination with the Haitian police.
Blackwater Founder Went In With Vectus Global in Haiti not just like that. They are concentrated there interests western mining companies. He wanted to implement the same scheme in Afghanistan in 2018, offering to finance hired soldiers with the money of local mining projects."Prince is going where there are minerals and where the US wants to create joint sovereign wealth funds. Ukraine fits this concept", – believes Blackwater's Iraq expidire Morgan Lerett, referring to subsoil agreement between Ukraine and the USA.
EP asked Prince about the details of his interest in drones in Ukraine, but at the time of the release of the material, she did not receive a response.
In July, Defense Secretary Pete Hagset announced that he was "beginning the dominance of American drones", and according to Zelenskyi, Ukraine is preparing an agreement with the United States on the purchase of American weapons in exchange for the sale of Ukrainian drones.
"Safe" smartphones, which have a lot of questions
Another project of Prince is the company Unplugged, which develops the "best confidential" smartphone UP Phone. The company announced it in 2022, but it did not go on sale until 2024. Unplugged does not report, how many smartphones were sold, claiming that they "flew up in a few hours".
In August 2025, the company announced about restarting UP Phone. According to estimates The Verge, the technical "stuffing" remained almost identical: a MediaTek Dimensity 1200 processor, a 6.67-inch OLED display, 8 GB of RAM, and a triple rear camera with a 108 megapixel main lens.
Price too hasn't changed: $989. Included in this amount is the first year of subscription to the Unplugged privacy service, which then costs $12.99. month and includes a VPN, antivirus, encrypted messages and cloud photo storage.
According to critics, Unplugged is betting on promoting its product among conservative Americans based on political ties and podcast partnerships, rather than its essence. "It's a scam, they're deceiving people by putting them at risk. Their devices do not have basic means of protection against data extraction and use. They are much worse than the iPhone", – they insist developers of Graphene OS.
Prince does promote UP Phone on every episode of his podcast Off Leash. He statedthat this smartphone would prevent mass murders during attack Hamas to Israel in 2023, claiming that it was phone data that was the source of intelligence for Hamas. "Our smartphone would prevent this", Prince assured.
Data privacy experts skeptical to such statements. According to them, the features that Prince advertises can be turned on on most smartphones and deactivated advertising identifiers you can on Android and iPhone.
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