EXCLUSIVE
By Jeff Farrell
A British man who fought in Ukraine has been convicted in Poland for the possession of Russian ammunition and grenades that he tried to transport into the country after he quit the war.
Alexander Thomas Chippendale, 26, was stopped in a vehicle as he attempted to enter Poland at the Korczowa crossing in the south east of the country on his way home to the UK.
The 26 year old, who had served with Kyiv’s International Legion, was in a black Range Rover with UK reg plates and adorned with Ukraine military markings.
Border guards at the Korczowa checkpoint stopped the vehicle in an apparent random search and discovered the deadly stash.
It included 210 pieces of illegal ammo for an AK47 and a “grenade element”, an email to this publication from the prosecutors’ office in the Polish city of Przemyśl this week states.
A British man who had also quit fighting in Ukraine, and who was a passenger in the vehicle that Chippendale drove to the Polish border, took snaps of the lethal haul.
The images provided to this publication include several magazines of bullets that had been hidden in the rear of the Range Rover.
The fellow Brit fighter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Chippendale had seized the lethal stash from dead Russian soldiers in a “scavenger hunt” in the battlefield.
He added: “It’s to make sure they don’t get back into Russian hands.” Kyiv’s military typically recycles the weapons for use in their fight against the invading army.
At the Polish border, Chippendale was detained and hauled in front of prosecutors in the nearby city of Jaroslaw where he was interrogated and pleaded guilty without a trial, prosecutors said. He was freed hours later and returned to the UK the next day.
The criminal department II court in Jarosław sentenced Chippendale earlier last year, a ruling which this journalist exclusively turned up this week.
“The court sentenced Aleksander [sic] Thomas C. to 7 months' imprisonment suspended for 1 year, a punitive measure in the form of making the judgment public, and ordered the forfeiture of ammunition,” the email said of the sentence in February 29, 2024.
The court updated the verdict on September 12, 2024 with a “partial change” to the verdict said to be a fine, a source said.
Chippendale, who was born in Fulwood, his passport seen by this journalist shows, had followed protocol when he quit the Legion and had turned in his weapon and ammunition to his commanding officer, the fellow Brit fighter said.
“They go on a scavenger hunt and go through the dead Russian bodies and pull out any ammunition and weapons.”
He added that Chippendale had jumped ship from Kyiv’s military after he had suffered a minor suspected shrapnel injury to his back in the wartorn Bakhmut area of eastern Ukraine.
And he said that he had no idea of the 26 year old’s motive for trying to traffick the deadly haul, but added that many young foreign fighters take home battlefield “souveneirs”.
The Brit fighter told how the border guards stopped and searched the Range Rover vehicle shortly before 9pm on November 27, 2023, images show. Prosecutors charged Chippendale the next day and gave their final sentence in September of 2024.
The fellow Brit fighter, who is in his 40s and from northern England, said after the officials found the lethal haul in the vehicle they fingerprinted the pair.
They then linked the 26 year old to the deadly stash after finding his prints on the ammunition, he said. The Brit fighter in his 40s was detained but later released with no charge, emails from a Polish court this week confirm.
The man, who had also served in the International Legion, told of his shock when the Polish guards turned up Chippendale’s weapons in the Range Rover.
“I just said ‘what the fuck, what the fuck, Alex’.
“He just walked away from me, and went all quiet.
“I then called his commanding officer [in the Legion] to inform him. I asked the [border guards] could I take pictures of the hauls and they said ‘yeah, no problem’. I sent them to the commanding officer.”
Kyiv’s International Legion was contacted for comment. No reply has been received.
COURT
The older Brit fighter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the pair were detained overnight at the border in Poland before Chippendale was taken to a local court the following day.
“The next morning I saw Alex in cuffs.
“He came back later and said he was in the court, told me his sentence. I was pissed off with him and he didn’t say much else.”
"Lots of young foreign fighters take home souvenirs from the frontline - one took a Russian helmet and a bayonet, but the Polish border guards took the bayonet off of him."
The fighter in his 40s said after the pair were released from the border post, the older man drove the Range Rover. He said he transported Chippendale to a hotel in Krakow and that the next day Chippendale flew back to the UK.
Efforts to contact Chippendale for comment have so far been unsuccessful.
“He’s just vanished, like a ghost,” the fellow Brit fighter said. “I had him on Signal and all the social media but nothing now.
“It was weird, he said he was from Preston, but lived in Northern Ireland, but he spoke with an American accent,” he added.
FORENSICS
The older Brit fighter added that a forensics test on the haul of ammo and grenades that Chippendale had transported found that the stash was Russian weapons. This journalist could not confirm the claim.
The man said that after successful strikes on the battlefield by Ukraine against enemy soldiers it was common for Kyiv’s men to seize the invader’s weapons.
“They go on a scavenger hunt and go through the dead bodies or any of the trenches that they've taken over and go and pull out any ammunition and weapons and stuff so it doesn't get put back into the Russian hands.”
But he said he had no clue as to what motive Chippendale could have had for trying to take home the massive haul of ammo and grenades he was caught with.
“I don’t know. You might bring an empty shell or a rocket home as souvenir, stick it up in the corner, but not all those bullets.”
The older Brit fighter, though, said that many of the younger foreign fighters who quit Kyiv’s military do try to bring home battlefield souvenirs.
He said that Polish border guards had halted one Australian soldier bound for home with items from the war that raised eyebrows.
“The people in their 20s, they’re [Kyiv’s military are] giving them AKs and sending them to the frontline. It’s mad.”
“He got a Russian helmet and a bayonet.
“He called us from the border to say they took the bayonet off of him, that’s all.
“It’s the kids, they’re all doing this. The people [foreign fighters] in their 30s are level headed.
“The people in their 20s, they’re [Kyiv’s military are] giving them AKs and sending them to the frontline. It’s mad.”
But he added: “When you get issued a weapon when you go to the front line, you only get three to four magazines, and when you quit you hand them back when you’re discharged.” He said that Chippendale had followed this protocol.
Polish border guards who turned up the ammo and grenades detained Chippendale following the search of the Range Rover shortly before 9pm on November 27, 2023, images show.
The officials the next morning then transported Chippendale from the Korczowa border to the nearby city of Jaroslaw, where he was interrogated, the prosecutors’ email states.
Prosecutors there charged the Brit fighter with Section 263 paragraph of the Polish Penal Code after he was earlier arrested on November 28, 2023, the statement adds.
The possession of a firearm or ammunition without the required permit in Poland
is punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to eight years, the law states.
“The interrogated person pleaded guilty and expressed his will to be sentenced without a trial,” the email from the District Prosecutor's Office in Przemyśl said.
The officials hours later freed Chippendale, who then travelled by plane from Krakow to the UK the following morning, the fellow Brit fighter said.
Earlier last year, on February 29, 2024 the verdict criminal department II in Jarosław gave a verdict over Chippendale.
“The court sentenced Aleksander [sic] Thomas C. to 7 months' imprisonment suspended for 1 year, a punitive measure in the form of making the judgment public, and ordered the forfeiture of ammunition,” the email said.
Polish courts do not generally publish the full surname of people before the courts, but the Brit fighter’s passport, which this paper obtained from a source, shows his surname as Chippendale.
Following the verdict in February 2024, it emerged that the prosecutor made a “big mistake” and is appealing his own charges because he had failed to include a fine, an official in the prosecutors’ office in Przemyśl said.
“He forgot about a money element and without it it is a big mistake on him,” the official said, speaking by phone to a source. “So the prosecutor will appeal even though he made an arrangement with this detainee in the first place.”
FINGERPRINTS
The Brit fighter who had been driving Chippendale in the Range Rover told how the border guards stopped and searched the vehicle shortly before 9pm on November 27, 2023.
The man, in his 40s, from northern England, said after the officials found the lethal haul in the vehicle they fingerprinted the pair.
They then linked the 26 year old to the deadly stash after finding his prints on the ammo, he said. The other Brit fighter was not detained and was not a suspect.
The border guards detained Chippendale and hauled him before prosecutors in the nearby city of Jaroslaw, 44kms to the west, where he was charged.
The District Prosecutor's Office in Przemyśl, in the southeast of Poland, this week confirmed that Chippendale had been sentenced over the haul of ammo and grenades.
“The British citizen detained on November 28, 2023, was charged by the District Prosecutor's Office in Jarosław with committing a crime under Art. 263 § 2 of the Penal Code, in connection with the discovery by BiOSG officers at the border crossing in Korczowa of 210 rounds of Ak47 ammunition and a grenade element,” a spokesman of the District Prosecutor's Office in Przemyśl, Marta Pętkowska, wrote in an email.
“The interrogated person pleaded guilty and expressed his will to be sentenced without a trial pursuant to Art. 335 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, such an application was submitted to the District Court, 2nd Criminal Division in Jarosław.
“By the judgment of February 29, 2024, the court sentenced Aleksander [sic] Thomas C. to 7 months' imprisonment suspended for 1 year, a punitive measure in the form of making the judgment public, and ordered the forfeiture of ammunition.
“The judgment is not final because it was appealed by the prosecutor due to the failure to impose a mandatory punitive measure in the form of a monetary award,” the statement added.
SENTENCE
The District Court in Przemyśl this week also confirmed Chippendale’s charges and sentence.
“In response to your press inquiry, I would like to inform you that proceedings were pending before the District Court in Jarosław against Alexander Thomas C., accused of the crime. joke. 263 par. 2 CC to ref. file II K 857/23,” Małgorzata Reizer, a spokesperson of the District Court in Przemyśl wrote in an email.
“On February 29, 2024, a judgment was passed before the District Court in Jarosław, which, as a result of an appeal from the District Prosecutor's Office in Jarosław, was partially changed by the judgment of September 12, 2024, ref. no. file II Ka 111/24.”
The court did not state the nature of the “partial change” in September but it is understood it imposed a fine on Chippendale on top of his other previous charges.
Officials at the Korczowa crossing that lies on the border with Ukraine declined to comment.
Ukraine’s International Legion was contacted for comment but did not reply.
Efforts have been made to contact Chippendale. A phone number written on his passport is out of service.
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