When in Kyiv, Kapuscinski was in charge of the dorms and oversaw the armory room, from where the weapons would go missing, too, multiple soldiers said.
“There were two times when NLAWs would come in at night and get unloaded, and they wouldn't be there in the armory the next morning, which is the only place they would be. That was very suspicious,” said a former legionnaire who while giving an interview to the Kyiv Independent was participating in Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast in September. He got in touch via Starlink. Shelling was heard in the background as he spoke.
There is no chance, he believes, that these weapons were given to some other unit. He believes that they were the only unit in the area at the time and therefore, the only ones who could have used the NLAWs. He said he did not report missing NLAWs to the commanders because he was afraid of Kapuscinski.
Two fighters independently said bayonets or knives for CZ and SCAR-L rifles disappeared from the armory room in Kyiv under Kapuscinski around April.
“I was thinking that a couple of days ago I saw with my own eyes hundreds of bayonets and now there is none of them in the armory room,” one soldier said of 200-300 bayonets for CZ rifles going missing. He said that it was a popular belief in the Legion that Kapuscinski was taking and selling the weapons.
According to multiple legionnaires, Kapuscinski often ordered them to suddenly hand him their weapons and ammunition and would take them away for good. They obeyed out of fear.
One of the soldiers complained that Kapuscinski had ordered his team of 20-30 people to put all their weapons and equipment in "garbage piles." Kapuscinski and his people then allegedly went through the soldiers' stuff, cherry-picked the best, including Legion-issued Glock pistols, and took it away.
In early June, at least a couple of hundred Glock pistols would also vanish from the armory room, said two other legionnaires.
In conversations with the Kyiv Independent, seven legionnaires accused Kapuscinski of taking away their personal equipment, including drones, flashlights, and protective gear they bought for themselves.
“He was like a security control that checks your bags and takes stuff,” one legionnaire said of Kapuscinski.
Kapuscinski’s room in the Legion’s headquarters, legionnaires said, gave them ideas about what his actual dealings might be.
“His room was full of alcohol and stolen stuff. People used to see it when he opened the door and I also saw it,” one fighter said.
“This guy was taking ammunition, rifles, sidearms, firearms, helmets, gear whatever he liked, I guess. He took it to his own personal quarters. And I saw this myself from the second-story window,” another soldier said.
This soldier emphasized that there were designated areas where supplies would be kept in storage, and Kapuscinski’s room wasn’t on that list.
Those who were close to Kapuscinski allegedly received gifts from him, like alcohol, cigarettes, and snacks, from him, according to the soldiers. Soldiers also accused him of offering to trade their equipment for something from the armory room.
“He was just, you know, collecting the best of the best and trading the stuff,” said a legionnaire, who refused Kapuscinski's alleged offer to trade his pistol holster for something from the armory.
In its previous story, the Kyiv Independent revealed that Kapuscinski had offered legionnaires to buy equipment from him, such as military thermal imagers, as well as took away half of the equipment they received from volunteers and friends, which they called “Sasha tax.”
Soldiers claim that Kapuscinski used to order them to carry boxed weapons from the armory to what they described as civilian vehicles. It raised suspicions among some legionnaires as the drivers would often keep the lights off and wear civilian clothes. “I never saw any papers being signed,” one soldier said.
One of those who participated in it recalled that he carried boxed U.S.-made CZ rifles under Kapuscinski’s directions. He also saw NLAW containers and Javelin tubes in the back of the van.
Legionnaires say that amid war, it’s easy to move small arms around without anybody noticing. The SBU officer investigating weapons going missing in the military intelligence-run wing of the Legion agrees: “The country is at war. No one will be surprised if you transport protective gear or weapons.”
“When weapons arrive at a unit, it is official. What happens then is very complicated to establish as it is quite easy to write them off (the weapons) as lost, broken, or destroyed during combat,” he went on.
“It only becomes noticeable when stuff is not available and not getting to the people,” one soldier said. That’s also how legionnaires who spoke to the Kyiv Independent started noticing it.
A person who used to be responsible for logistics in the Legion claims that often supplies he had delivered did not reach the soldiers on the battlefield.
“You have the guys on the front line, the foreigners themselves, requesting optics or food or X, Y, and Z, whatever…and then you bring those things to the warehouse,” he said.
A couple of weeks later, the soldiers would request the very same things he had just brought, saying they never received them.
He believes that commanders, who “inspected every piece of equipment you were bringing,” might be behind it.
“When you have some corruption in a unit, making sure that supplies get to the people who need them becomes pretty difficult,” the former logistics officer said.
Pataljoniülema ähvarduskõne inglise keeles ühe oma sõduri vastu: veel tõmbled, siis see mees siin, Ukraina eriüksuse ohvitser, murrab sul luud ja sa ei liigu. Ja kõik kinnitavad, et sa ise kukkusid. Ja satud vanglasse. Ja seal, ma helistan ette oma sõpradele seal, juba oodatakse sind!In August, the SBU also opened a probe into Kapuscinski’s alleged involvement in arms and humanitarian aid theft, according to the Kyiv Independent’s partner TVN’s source in the SBU.
Meanwhile, Kapuscinski is wanted in Poland for fraud. Following the Kyiv Independent’s August investigation into him, the Polish prosecutors once again requested from their Ukrainian colleagues help in bringing Kapuscinski to justice.
“(Kapuscinski) is suspected of committing multiple crimes in Poland, for some of which he was convicted, but did not serve his sentence due to fleeing to the territory of Ukraine,” reads a letter provided to the Kyiv Independent by Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations.
In Ukraine, Kapuscinski was charged with aggravated robbery in 2016 and of illegal arms possession in 2021. After the full-scale Russian war broke out in February, Kapuscinski joined the military, at which point the courts suspended his case.
Despite the accusations and active investigations against him both in Ukraine and Poland, Kapuscinski maintains his high-level position in the Legion, according to the Kyiv Independent’s law enforcement and military sources.
“He was untouchable,” a soldier who was among the first to join the Legion, but is no longer there, said of Kapuscinski. “No matter how many reports I brought (to Kapuscinski’s commandment).”
“He was literally behaving like a mafia boss,” another former soldier said of Kapuscinski.
Legionnaires said that backing of the military intelligence (GUR) Major Taras Vashuk helped Kapuscinski get away with stealing and abusing soldiers. (Editor’s Note: More about it in our first story about the International Legion). Vashuk did not respond to the Kyiv Independent’s request for comment.
For his part, Vashuk has also survived complaints from legionnaires.
If Kapuscinski and Vashuk are untouchable, they aren’t the only ones.
Commanders of the army-led wing of the Legion also enjoy impunity despite endless complaints from personnel. Among them is lieutenant colonel Bohdan, commander of the 3rd Battalion. Legionnaires complain about his behavior at his previous posting, as commander of the 1st Battalion.
“He's very well-connected, which is why he's still in the Legion,” a soldier doing administrative work in the Legion said.
The battalion’s officers and privates filed petitions to the Armed Forces’ high command, reports to the parliament, and letters to the embassies accusing Bohdan of behaving erratically and mismanaging the unit.
“I have never seen in my life worse leadership. Please, for the love of God, replace him with anyone before good people get hurt or die,” one of the soldiers’ testimonies reads.
“Several hundred have left the Legion, not because of fear but because of frustration with the leadership abilities,” reads the report of another soldier concerning Bohdan.
Bohdan’s subordinates had been calling for his removal and investigation into him for months before he was transferred to head the 3rd Battalion, another formation within the army-run part of the International Legion, in late May.
Some soldiers consider it a promotion and are frustrated he did not face justice. Others say he has changed for the better in the new unit and is now a decent commander, although they think he should be held accountable for his past misdeeds.
Bohdan denied all allegations against him in a conversation with the Kyiv Independent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPkAQV4HMTk&t
Pataljoniülem Bohdan oli jõhker türann olnud, sõduritelt parema varustuse ära kiskunud, haavatuid haiglast välja peksnud ja minema saatnud jne.
https://kyivindependent.com/investigati ... ropriationThe endemic abuse of power by the commanders made foreign fighters’ service to Ukraine way harder than it could have been.
“For seven months soldiers here have been fighting on two fronts, one is Russia’s army, and another one is corruption. The only reason why Ukraine is winning is that Russia is rotten in corruption even more than Ukraine is,” one legionnaire told the Kyiv Independent.
The soldiers call upon authorities to reform the Legion. They are afraid that instead, authorities could just shut it down as an easier solution to end the complaints.
“We do not want the Legion to be closed, but to be reformed by NATO officers able to do so. Getting rid of the Legion will be a loss of opportunity for Ukraine. It has incredible potential, but the leadership must be changed,” the soldier went on.
“There is no trust in the officer structure. And there's no accountability. They don't have to answer to people, there's no checks and balances,” another legionnaire said.
Speaking of Kapuscinski as the most frequent target of complaints, one legionnaire told the Kyiv Independent: “The idea that the Legion was being in some capacity led by a Polish gangster, who was potentially skimming off the top, and that the Ukrainian military leadership or the military intelligence leadership allowed this to happen, I find it, I don't know, infuriating.”
“I have friends that died. I carried the body of one of my friends out of combat. I have other friends who have been emotionally shattered by combat that they saw in Ukraine as part of the Legion and are really struggling with it,” he went on.
“It dishonors the Ukrainian army,” he said of the Legion’s leadership misconduct. “It dishonors the Legion as a whole. And I find it extremely frustrating.”