The International Legion in Ukraine is allegedly commanded by a Polish criminal who sends fighters on suicide missions and robbery sprees. The commander denies all accusations.
“For four months, the legionnaires begged the state leadership to help them, but there was no reaction. And violations still happen. We published the article so that something would finally happen. The problems in the army must be solved now, during the war, because later it may be too late”, says the co-author of the report in “The Kyiv Independent”, Ana Mironjuk, in an interview with DW.
Ukrainian newspapers in English published an article about the International Legion, which gathers foreign volunteers in Ukraine, and was formed at the initiative of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The article refers to the part of the Legion that is subordinate to the Main Intelligence Department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and performs special tasks at the front in the fight against the Russian invasion.
Accusations against the Polish commander
The accusations presented in the paper refer to one of the commanders of the Legion, a 60-year-old Pole whose name in the newspaper is Saša Kučinski. However, the journalist’s research led to the man behind the nickname “Saša” – that is Polish citizen Pjotr Kapušćinski. It is known to the public that he was involved in the trial of one of the largest criminal gangs in Poland, the so-called “Pruskov gang”. In 2000, the Polish investigative authorities accused Pjotr Kapušćinski, who was nicknamed “Bart” at the time, for 71 crimes, including one kidnapping.
However, in 2009, the investigative procedure was suspended and he received the status of “crown witness”. On the basis of his testimony, nine members of the gang were convicted, the Polish daily press wrote at the time. Later, Kapušćinski was suspected of other criminal acts, so in 2020 he lost his status as a privileged witness. In an article from a Polish newspaper, which refers to the Polish state attorney’s office, it is stated that Kapušćinski has been mixing “truth and fiction” for years, so many of his statements have not been confirmed.
At that time, he had been living in Ukraine for years. And in that country, according to the state records of court protocols, since April 2017 in Ivano-Frankivska, he has been suspected of robbery and sexual violence. In November 2017, a court in Warsaw requested the extradition of Kapuscinski, because he was sentenced to three years in prison in Poland. But the judiciary in Galich, Ukraine, wanted to first examine the possibility of starting its own legal proceedings against him. That dragged on.
Last year, Ukrainian police found a gun in his car, he was arrested, but he posted bail and was released. In May 2022, the investigation into robbery and sexual violence in Galič was suspended. State Attorney Ihor Tjuško told DW that the reason was his service in the Ukrainian army.
Violence, robberies, unprepared actions
Military service did not improve Kapuscinski’s character, say the journalists of “The Kyiv Independent”. They accuse him of sexually harassing a doctor in Legia. In addition, he forced foreign volunteers to rob a department store at the beginning of June during the fighting for Severodonetsk and Lisičansk in the Donbass.
Legionnaires claim that Kapušćinski sent them unprepared into military operations. An example is a unit of volunteers from Brazil which, in the battles for Severodonetsk, was first exposed to the fire of its own artillery, and then was exposed to enemy fire for days without food, water and the possibility of evacuation.
Journalists called him on the phone so that Kapušćinski would react to the accusations, and he said that they should be sent to the judicial authorities, because he did not have time to talk. “And then he hung up,” said Ana Mironjuk.
And DW tried to establish contact with him through his lawyer Petar Škvarek, who represented him in Galič. In an interview with DW, Kapušćinski confirmed that he is a commander in the International Legion and that he has a criminal past, as well as that he was a “crown witness”.
“I worked for the mafia. I stole, sold cocaine, there was a lot of it,” Kapušćinski said and added that he does not have an officer’s rank in the Ukrainian army, despite the photos in which he has the epaulettes of a colonel, because according to Ukrainian law, a foreigner cannot have a rank higher than junior sergeant. At the same time, he emphasized that he had been performing tasks for the Polish secret service for years.
“Journalists talked to deserters”
“Although many people know my biography, I am respected in the Legion. That’s why my friend simply glued the colonel’s epaulettes to my uniform. In the Legion, officer rank does not play any role, considering that here we live well together and fight together,” explained Kapušćinski.
He rejects all the accusations made against him in the newspapers and claims that the journalists talked to the deserters who left the battlefield near Sjevorodonjek. “In times of war, such people are shot. But Ukraine is a liberal country. I sent them by bus to Kyiv, took away their weapons and military IDs. They were expelled from the Legion. It was a group of Colombians. They complained to the military prosecutor’s office,” says Kapušćinski. He adds that they interrogated him and other soldiers after that, but did not find any violations.
As for the department store in Lisičansk, Kapušćinski claims that he had permission from the owner to take the goods that his unit needed. The public relations department of the Komfi chain for the sale of technical goods confirmed that it had allowed the goods to be taken away.
DW tried to get a statement from the competent ministry on the status of Pjotro Kapušćinski and the result of the review of complaints against him. But representative of the competent institution Andij Jusov did not find time to answer those questions. The same questions were ignored by the president’s representative for national defense, Aljona Verbick. And the public relations service of the Legion, which is subordinate to the ground forces of Ukraine, issued a statement that the intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense is not responsible for the Legion.
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