Russia-Ukraine war: How private security groups are playing a role in evacuations

Global Guardian CEO Dale Buckner joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how private security groups are evacuating people from Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.

Video Transcript

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AKIKO FUJITA: Well, more than 2 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the Russian invasion began two weeks ago. That's at least according to the latest numbers out from the UN. Our next guest has been working closely with Fortune 1000 companies to evacuate their employees and they've gotten more than 7,000 people out of the war zone to date. Let's bring in the CEO of security firm Global Guardian, Dale Buckner is joining us this morning.

And Dale, it's good to talk to you today. You said you're on day 15 of going on two to three hours of sleep. I know you've been busy. Talk to me about what the situation is on the ground for your employees who are trying to get as many people out of Ukraine as possible.

DALE BUCKNER: Thank you, Akiko. Yeah, the conditions on the ground are worsening every day. When we started, of course, the front line trace of the Russian forces which was much further north near Kyiv, the capital, was much further to the east near Donbas, and they were in, within the Crimea in the south. Obviously, all that's changed. So now we're moving and flowing with where the Russians are moving towards and we're trying to avoid those areas as we continue to execute these evacuations.

AKIKO FUJITA: Give me a sense of what that evacuation looks like. I know you've been in touch with Fortune 1000 companies. I imagine the company turns to you and says, look, we've got these employees there. We need to get them out. How do you do it?

DALE BUCKNER: It's actually quite simple. And I think this has evolved after about the first three days of where, yes, in the initial phase it was a corporate headquarters asking us to focus on getting their ex-pats out, to getting their senior leaders. But after about day three, this really did become a humanitarian effort focused on everyone. So now, you know, in the last 12 days, every, every mission, every evacuation we've executed, has included children, family members, grandfathers, grandmothers, relatives. So it really has changed and we're focusing and doing this now as a completely humanitarian evacuation.

- And Dale, I noticed that your company also engages in cybersecurity, asset security. What kinds of requests are you getting for these, um, these items as well?

DALE BUCKNER: Yes, sir. So we do. The model itself is intended to be comprehensive, meaning we provide travel security with medical evacuations, travel tracking, intelligence alerts, and, of course, security services. And, of course, what you're watching now in the Ukraine we classify as emergency response. In addition, we do have a cyber offering and we'll focus on the end user. Not just the enterprise security of cyber, but what happens with the individual cell phone, the individual laptop, their hygiene, and then figuring out what's out there on the open web and dark web.

And then lastly, we do have a camera surveillance platform that is much more robust than your ADT or Ring.com or something like that, much more intricate with a lot more capability, if you will.

AKIKO FUJITA: Dale, what are your operations in Russia look like? Obviously, the fighting is all happening in Ukraine but so many Western companies have come out and said, we are not doing business there anymore. And yet, you've got the Europeans shutting down airspace to Russian flights, the US doing that as well. How do you get these people out?

DALE BUCKNER: Yeah, so in the first couple of weeks, we executed multiple private charters to get large groups of ex-pats and senior leaders and family members out. That's since gotten very difficult. For example, your standard charter private aircraft cycle would take anywhere between four to six days to get approvals to get air space and landing permits. Then-- that is now taking 10 to 14 days. So it's very slow. In addition, you can't, as you pointed out, Canada, Europe, the United States, you cannot fly in or out. So that creates some logistic issues.

And we were flying into the UAE, primarily, because there's no visa requirement to go into the UAE. Now that that's gotten tighter and harder, there are still commercial operations going on. It is, of course, much more limited than it was. But we are getting our clients to major airports, flying them to the UAE, and then they transition from the UAE into back to their home country or where their headquarters is. That's still working. And I think that will stay up. It could be another week, it could be two weeks. It could be a month. It could be a couple months. But the assumption is, that's going to get harder and potentially that could even change.

And then lastly, of course, there are ground movements to go cross border into Eastern Europe. Again, all of these things are still available but if we're providing guidance, if you will, to an HR director or security manager, we're telling people you have to have a sense of urgency. You have to assume that those outlets, whether it's cross border, it's commercial, it's charter, those things are going to continue to tighten and tighten and tighten. And, frankly, within the next two to three weeks to a month they could disappear. And now you have people stuck.

AKIKO FUJITA: Dale, what does this cost the companies? What does it cost families who are calling you and saying, we need to get these people out? I think a lot of people are curious, especially given that there are people who can't necessarily pay for your services but are also in a position where they need to evacuate.

DALE BUCKNER: Yeah, so as I stated, we really turned-- transitioned into a humanitarian effort here. So we are running vehicles and assets, people, and buses and Sprinter vans and things like that. When we don't have them tasked, we are running free shuttles to the border of Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia. And then when we do execute a mission on behalf of a corporate client, as I stated, we're bringing families and all elements of family members.

And then, in addition, when we have open seating and we're executing a mission-- so this morning, we pulled 350 passenger van or vehicles out of Kyiv. And it might be our last major evacuation out of Kyiv at least in the short term. And with that, we had empty seats and we filled those empty seats with your average citizen at no cost. So we're finding ways to maximize that capability and capacity and fill it as we're trying to take care of our clients, and then of course, the Ukrainians in general, everywhere-- every chance we get.

AKIKO FUJITA: And finally, Dale, you are a global operation. I know you've responded to past conflicts in Afghanistan, in places like Myanmar. How does this particular conflict differ from those situations? What has complicated this?

DALE BUCKNER: So I will say there's a uniformity to all crises like this. And I say this a lot. People typically don't catch the first time. But if you think of 2017 and the back to back hurricanes in the Caribbean, you think about the Paris attacks, the Turkey coup, the Myanmar coup, the failure of the Indian medical system, the evacuation of Afghanistan, the evacuation now in Ukraine. What's similar is this. The first thing that disappears is airspace. Typically, that lasts a couple of days to a week and then it's gone.

Then you start to lose public transportation. Ultimately, you end up in the exact same position we're in. And all of those crises it's uniform. You end up with ground assets that are limited. Now everyone-- there's enormous amount of demand for a very small supply of 50 packs vans, and Sprinter vans, and vehicles like that. So now that's under stress. And we're looking for the safe zone, whether that's cross border, whether that's just, in this case, simply to live to the west where the Russians don't have a footprint. We're all executing the calculus of where are the people, where's the threat, what is the platform we can move them, and then, ultimately, where is that safe zone?

So I think that part of it's uniform in every case. What is most interestingly about the Ukraine, and, frankly, Afghanistan, but the Ukraine is just the level of violence. Meaning, we went in to Kyiv this morning, and Odessa, and Dnipro. All three cities were evacuated this morning. In each case, literally as the vehicles are standing there, we're manifesting clients and Ukrainians onto the bus. You can hear missile strikes. You can hear bombs going off. So it's visceral.

And going through checkpoints and dealing with the police and dealing with the military, all of those things just create confusion. It makes things slower. It makes it more difficult to move. And, I think, that's really what we're facing now as things have really gotten difficult. And it's slower than we would like. But that's what happens after two weeks in an environment like this.

- Amazing it's only been two weeks. Dale, really fascinating to get your boots on the ground appraisal of the situation. And we'd love to have you back in maybe another two or four weeks. But in the meantime, we do hope you get some sleep as well. Dale Buckner, Global Guardian CEO.