Journalists of the Kyiv Independent claim that the commander of part of the Ukrainian International Legion is a Polish gangster who also committed crimes in its ranks.
The crimes included acting to the detriment of the Legion’s soldiers themselves, who would be sent on ‘suicide’ missions and have their weapons appropriated by the commander and sold on the black market. Citing “numerous sources”, the portal writes that robberies of shops and private homes, assaults, and sexual harassment were also to have taken place. Its journalists say they took up the case after the soldiers failed to intervene despite appeals to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, the parliament, and even President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Journalists Anna Myroniuk and Alexander Khrebet emphasize that the criminal phenomena occurred in that part of the International Legion which is subordinate to Ukrainian military intelligence (the rest of the subdivisions are subordinate to the Land Forces). This is close supervision, as the commanders of the sub-units of this wing of the Legion report directly to Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the intelligence service. Directly at the head of this part of the Legion, moreover, are three intelligence officers, two of whom are close relatives and one a Pole.
The soldiers’ main complaint against these commanders is that they send them on, in the opinion of their subordinates, “suicide missions”. One American volunteer told of how his subunit was detected by the Russians at a position near Mykolaiv. After the neighboring Ukrainian units withdrew, he remained in the position under heavy artillery fire for a long time, and when he finally got out of position, commanders with intelligence sent other Legion soldiers there. It was in the second group that the volunteer Andrew Hill, who was eventually taken prisoner and is now awaiting sentencing or even execution in the court of the Russian-occupied Donetsk People’s Republic, was to be found.
When questioned by journalists, the volunteer – an American Jew, as he was referred to in the article – complained about the anti-Semitism of one of the unit’s three commanders, ‘Sasha Kuczynski’. He was said to have threatened the soldiers by pointing a gun at them and to have verbally sexually assaulted the female orderlies. “Scandinavian soldier” of the Legion stated that he always received support from Ukrainian officers to “do whatever he wanted”. “Sasha Kuczynski” himself is not Ukrainian … he is a criminal from Poland.
“Sasha Kuczynski” is, in fact, Piotr Kapuscinski. Under the alias “Broda” (English: “Beard” – ed.) he was one of the gangsters of the Pruszków group working directly for its leaders. He was involved in the murder of police chief Marek Papala and testified as a witness in that case. He also testified in other cases as a protected witness. Because of this, his criminal case was suspended – Kapuscinski is suspected of fraud. In 2014. Kapuscinski “Broda” fled to Ukraine. Despite an official extradition request from Polish law enforcement agencies sent in 2017, the Ukrainians did not hand over the gangster to Poland.
Read the full article by Kyiv Independent about the case by clicking this link.