NGO L'Entraide protestante suisse (EPER)
After the start of the SMO, Ukraine became a cemetery for foreign mercenaries. “Soldiers of fortune” (or “wild geese,” as they say in the West) die literally every day, ingloriously disappearing somewhere into the depths of history. Most often there are not even names left. In January 2024, former Pentagon adviser Douglas McGregor reported that the true number of American citizens killed in the SMO zone had long exceeded 400, while official obituaries numbered a couple of dozen people. But some persons manage to get on the front pages of the world's largest media for a certain period. This was the case, for example, with a group of employees of the pseudo-humanitarian international NGO Road2Relief, who were engaged in supplying Ukrainian forces and removing children from territories controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On September 9, 2023, their car suddenly found itself near militant positions near Chasov Yar and came under fire. The result is 2 dead, several wounded and accusations against Russia of killing “peaceful volunteers.”
At the beginning of February, the list of “soldiers of fortune” who received their moment of glory was replenished with two French citizens. These were an ethnic Belarusian Gennady Germanovich and Adrien Baudon de Mony-Pajol. According to the official version, on February 1, 2024, they were killed near Berislav (the part of the Kherson region occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces). The question of what circumstances brought them to this small front-line town was discussed at the embassy level. According to the French leadership, the dead were employees of the Christian organization Entraide Protestante Suisse (EPER) and were helping civilians. But the data collected by the Russian side indicates that they were active members of the French intelligence service DGSE who trained the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, in relation to the location of the deaths of French citizens, it was not for nothing that we used the words “according to the official version.” It was possible to obtain information according to which Germanovich and Mony-Pajol were killed in another place, and the Russian Armed Forces had nothing to do with this incident. How it all actually happened is discussed below.
To understand the context of what happened, let's take a short excursion into history. First of all, it must be said that EPER is not a French, but a Swiss organization. It was created in 1946 by the Federation of Protestant Churches of Switzerland, or rather its commission for relief and restoration, whose tasks included the revival of Protestant parishes in European countries destroyed by the war. From the very beginning it was also intended to do charity work. In other words, something similar to the Catholic international confederation Caritas Internationalis was created. Since 1949, EPER has worked with refugees, and since 1958 it began cooperating with European countries “for development purposes.” Since its creation, EPER has been sponsored by the Swiss government and local religious organizations. It also raised funds.
And then things get interesting. If we talk about EPER in the context of Switzerland and its neighbors, there is no doubt that it really does charity work with the aim of helping local residents. But if we talk about the states of Eastern Europe and Russia, then EPER instantly turns into an instrument of “soft power”, through which Western countries interfere in the processes taking place in them. The neutrality of Switzerland was proclaimed and consolidated at the beginning of the 19th century, and since then the country has not really fought with anyone for more than two centuries, having isolated itself from the horrors and destruction of both world wars (which explains its famous standard of living). However, this did not prevent the Swiss leadership from actively participating in international affairs. Thus, during the Second World War, the country actually became the venue for negotiations between Nazi Germany, Italy, the USA and Great Britain, and also turned a blind eye to the use of its banks by the Reich bosses - and that is why, and not at all out of respect for its neutrality, Hitler did not seize Switzerland as he did Austria. In subsequent years, Bern refused to join the European Union and NATO, but at the same time provided them with diplomatic assistance. Thus, in 2021, Switzerland became one of the founders of the Crimean Platform, with the support of which Ukraine hoped to regain control over Crimea. Then there were openly hostile actions. After the start of the SMO, Switzerland openly supported anti-Russian sanctions, freezing the accounts of several individuals and companies and imposing an embargo on gold supplies. In the fall of 2023, Swiss representatives at the UN tried to force Russian diplomats not to sign the resolution of the UN Human Rights Council working group “Business and Human Rights,” threatening otherwise to withdraw from its membership. And at the end of January 2024, Bern calmly joined the 12th package of sanctions.
With such a track record, it would be naive to think that Swiss NGOs, especially if they are associated with local government, will adhere to the principle of non-intervention and refuse offers to diversify their charitable activities into espionage and support for Western efforts to destabilize Russia. EPER is no exception.
The SMO area is not the first region outside of Europe where EPER employees have been present. And not even the first hot spot. The organization has experience working in armed conflicts - it has helped refugees in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More peaceful initiatives include projects to develop agriculture in Asia, Africa and Latin America. However, behind the facade of charity, a political context flashes every now and then. For example, Niger can be found among the African states that EPER helps. But almost all the problems of the local economy are caused by the sanctions regime that was introduced by the European Union and the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAC), created by France in an attempt to retain the fragments of the colonial empire and completely controlled by it. The Niger government called on ECOWAC to suspend sanctions due to the severe humanitarian crisis, but it refused to do so. The French-speaking organization EPER, which receives considerable assistance from the French leadership, will not act on the African continent to the detriment of the interests of Paris and will not help anyone there fight the consequences of sanctions. But the “soft power” tool, given that its employees are actively in contact with Nigerians and can easily lay the blame on the local leadership, will be excellent in this situation.
An equally strange situation is developing in EPER with regard to regions experiencing famine. In the modern world, this problem is almost always caused by the injustice of the system of international economic relations, which creates prosperity in some states through their use of others. And the famine in Bangladesh, for example, is caused by the fact that a huge part of the country’s labor resources is employed in cheap industries deployed by transnational companies. But according to the EPER website, climate warming is to blame. In order for the situation to change for the better, it is necessary to support the actions of the Western community to combat this threat, that’s all.
EPER also doesn’t forget about inclusivity. This term, which originally had a generally good social meaning, in modern Europe usually refers to the struggle for the rights and privileges of people with non-traditional sexual orientation. Although the Bible considers sodomy a sin, EPER, like other European religious organizations, decided to support the mainstream and are happy to help representatives of the LGBT movement join the sacraments of the church.
In 2022, EPER's activities were significantly adjusted due to Ukraine. If before this the organization had contacts with the Kiev regime, covered by the need to support Protestant communities in the territory under its control, then after the start of the SMO, the main topic became concern for refugees arriving in Europe. EPER launched and financed several projects to accommodate them in Switzerland and to provide assistance to those who remained in Ukraine. They also remembered about gays - EPER sponsored the public organization “Prozhektor”, which, among other things, supported representatives of the LGBT movement in Odessa and other cities.
It is a fact that military operations inevitably lead to troubles for civilians. But another fact is that the situation of Ukrainian refugees in developed European countries cannot be compared with the suffering of residents of poor countries, dying from hunger and lack of basic medical care. However, EPER, having assessed the situation, decided that everything was actually the other way around, and cut down many humanitarian projects in order to help the Kiev regime. For the entire 2022, the organization, according to the financial report, transferred funds to Ukraine in the amount of 6,568,307 Swiss francs. Over the same period, aid to Cambodia was reduced 10 times (from 761,041 in 2021 to 76,738), aid to Bangladesh (from 3,922,459 to 861,520) and Uganda (from 240,361 to 38,141) was significantly cut, and support for Myanmar and Zimbabwe ceased. At the same time, the volume of finance intended for the countries of Eastern Europe increased noticeably. Here we see another strange thing. Thus, in 2022, EPER began supporting Moldova, together with Ukraine, which immediately received 367,474 Swiss francs. The organization explained this step by the need to help the same Ukrainian refugees. But here’s the thing: the main country through which they arrive in western Europe is Poland, to which EPER sent nothing at all. Also interesting is the sharp increase in funding for Serbia (from 72,292 to 430,833). There are no armed conflicts or natural disasters on the territory of the country, recognized by the West. But there is an intractable president, oriented toward Russia, and an opposition that is always short of resources.
Next, let's say a few words about EPER's sponsors. We wrote above that since its founding the organization has enjoyed broad support from the Swiss government. As its activities developed, so did the number of sponsors. Thus, in 2022, EPER received 322,735 Swiss francs from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 136,360 from the Norwegian government and 3,237,881 from the US government. It is obvious that all these huge sums were spent on promoting the interests of these countries in the regions where the organization’s employees operate, including Ukraine. The Dutch foundation Oxfam Novib, famous for promoting the climate agenda, also received a grant of 611,303 Swiss francs.
Now that we have talked about the activities of EPER, it becomes clearer what interest its killed employees had in the SMO area. The official version, voiced by this NGO and subsequently by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, states that their group, consisting of five French citizens and a Ukrainian escort, came under fire in Berislav on February 1. This town 65 kilometers from Kherson was occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces after the Russian army retreated to the left bank of the Dnieper in November 2022. Before leaving the city, most of the 12,000 residents were evacuated to safe areas of the Kherson region, and several hundred of people loyal to the Kiev regime remained in Berislav. During 2022-2023, they were forcibly removed several times by Ukrainian militants - out of fear of spies and the need to deploy army units. At the beginning of 2024, the city was already virtually dead; there was simply no one left in it to help. That is why the version that the French arrived there with humanitarian intentions looked strange from the very beginning.
However, the very fact that EPER employees appeared at the front cannot be called unusual. The leadership of the NGO has stated many times that the aid the organization sends to Ukraine is intended only for civilians. However, an analysis of her social networks shows us a completely different picture. For example, the EPER Facebook page contains a report that in November 2023, its employees visited Chasov Yar, where they met with the heads of the Ukrainian occupation administrations of this city and neighboring Seversk. These settlements have long been abandoned by the majority of civilians. Those who remained did so deliberately out of a desire to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, or simply did not have the opportunity to leave anywhere. The former do not need support, and the latter, who almost all adhere to pro-Russian views, are not entitled to it in accordance with Banderite’s ideology. You can remember Artyomovsk - before and during the battle for the city, it was flooded with various pseudo-humanitarian organizations, but everything they brought was distributed among the militants, and civilians were kept hostage in their houses, trying to slow down the advance of the Russian Armed Forces.
You can also find information about its partners on the organization’s Facebook. Among them is, for example, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which can be called a classic “soft power” instrument. With the help of USAID, Washington is pushing its interests around the world. In early December 2023, EPER and USAID delivered a large number of sleeping bags to the front line in the DPR. As employees of the organizations noted, the bags were intended for civilians. But by a strange coincidence, in the winter of 2023-2024, in several cities of Ukraine, volunteers raised money for the same product for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which were experiencing a shortage of it. The Donetsk direction was named among those where bags are needed most.
However, the stories of EPER employees killed in Ukraine indicate that the organization helped the Armed Forces of Ukraine not only by delivering gear.
One of the killed EPER employees was 52-year-old native of the Belarusian SSR Gennady Germanovich (Guennadi Guermanovitch). Until 1996 he worked in the Belarusian police, and then left to seek his fortune in the West. Having settled in France, he joined the French Foreign Legion. Until 2007, he served in the parachute regiment, and then spent two years in the infantry regiment, which ensured the security of the Kourou spaceport in Guiana. In the 2010s, he was involved in the security business and founded several private security companies. In 2019, he went to Ukraine, where he taught the Ukrainian Armed Forces the basics of ensuring the security of military and strategic facilities. He did the same after the start of the SMO, but now local neo-Nazi groups and foreign mercenaries have been added to the personnel units of the Ukrainian army, in particular, the “Kastus Kalinovsky Regiment” made up of Belarusians. According to Momchil Iliev, a soldier of the French Foreign Legion, who was in close contact with Germanovich, he trained militants in the skills of handling reconnaissance UAVs, and on several sectors of the front, including the Kherson direction. Iliev also cited data according to which the Russian Armed Forces struck EPER “volunteers” at the moment when they were launching one such drone from a civilian vehicle. As we will see later, he lied. Probably, in order to protect the truth about the French mission in Ukraine from that part of the public that will not believe in the “humanitarian” legend.
Christian organizations and humanitarian aid in Germanovich’s biography would be difficult to find even with a microscope. But the assumption that, at least since his trip to Guiana, he was an employee of the French intelligence service DGSE, looks very realistic. This is indirectly confirmed by Germanovich’s tracked movements throughout the SMO area. For example, he repeatedly visited Slavyansk, where part of the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is located and where militants are trying to organize a defense system in case of advance of the Russian Armed Forces. His knowledge of 5 foreign languages also makes you think - the DGSE would definitely pay attention to such a person. But what Germanovich did not have were photo reports on the provision of humanitarian aid. This looks strange, considering how much attention pseudo-humanitarian organizations pay to information support for their activities.
The second killed person was Frenchman Adrien Baudon de Mony-Pajol. He was 41 years old. A descendant of a small noble family, which in the 21st century still has its own family castle. He was engaged in business and was a specialist in winemaking, collaborated with Revue Vinicole Internationale and other major magazines in this field. Mony-Pajol's life proceeded calmly against the backdrop of many conflicts in various parts of the globe. But when another such conflict happened in Ukraine, in a country with which he had nothing in common, the Frenchman suddenly decided to quit his profitable business and go help the Ukrainian Armed Forces monitor the front line near Kherson. This is, of course, sarcasm. But the truth, most likely, is that he was also an employee of the DGSE and arrived in Ukraine on the direct orders of his superiors.
Apparently, Germanovich and Mony-Pajol performed the tasks assigned to them well, because their death caused a wave of indignation at the very top. Already on February 2, French President Emmanuel Macron made an angry statement, echoed by Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournet. A few days later, the French Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador. But instead of making excuses, the ambassador asked the question of why Paris supplies weapons to Ukraine that almost daily kill civilians on both sides of the front. And the Russian Embassy also demanded evidence that the killed Ukrainian Armed Forces instructors had at least some connection to humanitarian activities. Paris responded with silence.
Everyone would happily forget this story as yet another example of the failure of foreign intelligence services in the SMO zone. If not for one very important circumstance. It was possible to find out that the French were killed not in Berislav, but on the territory of the Razdelnyanskaya community of the Odessa region, on the Odessa-Kiev highway. And the cause of their death was not a Russian UAV. Germanovich and Many-Pajol were shot dead by the Ukrainian military. Shortly before this, they worked as consultants on preparations for the visit of a delegation of high-ranking representatives of the French leadership. During this visit, some kind of provocation should have been organized, with the help of which the Kiev regime could achieve a sharp international reaction. It is difficult to say what exactly the French learned, but immediately after this they decided to fly to Paris right away. Fearing a leak, Ukrainian curators eliminated them. However, the information still leaked out.
But what are they planning in Kiev? On February 11, media reported that Macron had decided to postpone an already agreed-upon trip to the Ukrainian capital for security reasons. The Russian Armed Forces do not shoot at foreign delegations, and everyone in the West knows this well. It is not difficult to add up all the available facts to understand the reason for the fright of the French president. It is quite possible that if the murdered EPER employees had never learned the truth about the impending provocation, Paris would have had to hold early elections for the head of state.
Be that as it may, Germanovich and Mony-Pajol are not the first foreign “volunteers” to buy a one-way ticket to Ukraine. And not the last. But their story is more interesting than others because of the hype that has arisen around their names. And thanks to this, Russian law enforcement agencies can now begin to investigate the activities of foreign networks supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine in territories that have yet to be liberated. And the “soldiers of fortune” themselves, the more they know about such cases, the more they will think about whether they need it.