Fighters from the UK pose at a Lviv railway station before traveling to the front line in April 2022<\/p>\n
Fighters in Ukraine’s foreign legion say Western-supplied weapons are being stolen by corrupt commanders who are also bullying their subordinates and abusing their power to dismiss anyone who questions them on trumped-up charges.<\/p>\n
Sasha Kapuscinski, a Polish gangster-turned-officer now in charge of operations for one of the two branches of the foreign legion is singled out for particular criticism in a wide-ranging investigation <\/strong><\/a>by the Kyiv Independent<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Kapuscinski is accused of ‘acting like a Mafia boss’ by stealing weapons including US rifles and anti-tank launchers in order to sell them – sometimes back to his own men – as well as sexually harassing a female recruit, and of pointing a loaded gun at one\u00a0 man who defied him.<\/p>\n Soldiers say his superior officers, an uncle and nephew both called\u00a0Taras Vashuk, acted to protect him and sometimes joined the abuse. A lieutenant-colonel named only as\u00a0Bohdan and one of his subordinates, Nikolay Bakaliuk, are also accused.<\/p>\n Reporters say there is no suggestion of wide-ranging theft of advanced Western weapons as Russian propagandists have claimed, but that dozens – maybe hundreds – of recruits have quit the foreign legion after authorities failed to investigate.<\/p>\n