Forward Observations Group, (nicknamed FOG), is a military lifestyle brand[1][2] founded by former U.S. Army infantryman Derrick Bales, that sells tactical gear and branded accessories and operates "popular military lifestyle social media channels" on Instagram[3] and YouTube.

[4] The group has traveled to Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria to make connections with local fighters there and to shoot photo and video from the Russian invasion and Syrian civil war.

[5][6] The statement specifically alleged that, in December 2021, “Ukrainian radicals delivered 200-litre metal barrels with foreign markings to Donetsk Oblast.

The general coordination of the delivery and warehousing of hazardous freight was carried out by the staff of the private American military contractor Forward Observation Group (based in the state of Nevada).” The Russian statement provided no evidence for the claims, which were denied by both Bales and the U.S. State Department, which called the allegations "preposterous," and as a “false pretext we have been warning the Kremlin would invent.”[2] According to Foreign Policy, "Social media channels linked to the Wagner Group have been marketing T-shirts featuring a soldier swinging a sledgehammer onto a horned skeleton’s head—the logo of the Forward Observations Group".

[2] FOG is credited with the invention of the oft-copied "Roll 1 Trauma Pouch" in 2017, which one of their former 18D's originally designed and fabricated for SOF operators in Syria.