The name of the formation he fought for had been identified without a shadow of a doubt by Interpol: International legion of territorial defense of Ukraine. And based on the investigations conducted by the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office, it is an international brigade included in the Ukrainian regular army. This is why Kevin Chiappalone, the Genoese student now twenty-one years old and former CasaPound militant, who left in spring 2022 to fight against the Russians alongside Kiev’s soldiers, in the opinion of the magistrates cannot be defined as a mercenary and the investigation against him must ‘be archived. The anti-terrorism prosecutor Marco Zocco had accused him of having violated a specific law of 1995, which punishes enlistment without qualifications for foreign formations. And the one against Chiappalone was the first case known about alleged pro-Ukrainian foreign fighters.
Interpol investigations
In detailing the request for dismissal, the same public prosecutor specifies that the law «punishes anyone who, having received financial compensation or other benefits or having accepted the promise thereof, fights in an armed conflict in the territory controlled by a foreign state of which he is not is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident, without being part of the armed forces of one or the parties to the conflict. In the present case – adds Zocco – according to what emerged from the first report of the crime, the suspect would have received compensation for the activity performed as a fighter (in a broad sense, provided for logistics, or in a strict sense, on the battlefield) and the departure from Italy would demonstrate acceptance of the promise.”
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The prosecutor specifies that the initial investigations «were started as it was not possible to verify whether the young man, enrolled in the so-called International Legion, could be considered part of the Ukrainian armed forces and, for this reason, not a mercenary, but a regular fighter (in fact they had not been acquired evidence regarding his membership of the International Legion and it was instead possible that he had joined non-regular groups)”.
The turning point materialized on 4 February last year: that day «the suspect’s defense produced a certification, certifying the temporary classification of Chiappalone as an infantry soldier within the Armed Forces of Ukraine, issued by the ministry of the Ukrainian Defense. On the basis of the certification produced, the implementing law of the International Convention against the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries is therefore not applicable, which expressly excludes from the scope of punishment those who are part of the armed forces of one of the parties to the conflict.”
Zocco closes: «The unfoundedness of the crime news determines, as a consequence, the unfoundedness of the hypothesis of violation» of another law, which sanctions «those who recruit, use, finance or instruct people in order to make them fight illegally» .
The departure from Liguria and the passage to Poland
Kevin Chiappalone, we recall, left Italy in April 2022, entering Ukraine via Poland and ending up at the front after a relatively short period of exercises. He made himself known regularly on social networks and maintained contact with Liguria, where he also temporarily returned in recent months, without Digos adopting any measures against him since it was now clear that the investigation against him it would have ended up in the archive.
The twenty-one year old has always denied having committed crimes: «Ever since I arrived in Ukraine – the declarations reiterated several times to Secolo XIX – I have joined the ranks of the International Legion, which is completely integrated within the Ukrainian army. I am therefore serving an apparatus of the State and consequently I am a legitimate combatant within the meaning of the Geneva Convention.”
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