Ukrainian volunteers sell war trophies taken from the battlefield to raise funds for the front

In the corner of an outdoor gear store named Komanda-Ex in central Kyiv, among the backpacks and sleeping bags for sale are the remnants of a Russian drone, casings from artillery shells and name patches once worn by Russian soldiers.

Out back, behind a curtain, are parts of a downed plane. All of the items are for sale as part of a volunteer driven fundraising campaign designed to turn what they consider to be war trophies into funds to purchase new equipment for front-line troops.

"Most of the trophies, 90 per cent, we got from during our offensive campaigns when the Russians were retreating," said Petro Shamborovskyi, a volunteer who normally works as a real estate developer, but since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, has spent the bulk of his time fundraising and visiting soldiers at the front.

He says the brigades thathe and other volunteers are connectedwithhave been saving items for them, many of which were seized from the battlefield after Ukraine liberated a wide swath of the Kharkiv region in the fall of 2022.

Battlefield souvenirs

Throughout history, soldiers and militaries have keptenemy weaponry and equipment aspersonal souvenirs and historical artifacts.

While items often end up in official museum collectionslike some of the thousands of guns and artillery pieces seizedby the Canadian Corps during the First World Warothersare kept by individuals or sold to private collectors.

A communications representative from Ukraine's Ministry of Defence told CBCNews that, particularly during the early months of the invasion, the public waskeen to purchasewar trophies, because usually the money is used to buy equipment for troops on the frontline.

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From parts of downed planes and bullet-riddled helmets to uniform patches, a volunteer group in Kyiv is selling Russian items found on the battlefields to raise money for the war effort and buy drones for Ukraine.

Shamborovskyiestimates that this group hasraised tens of thousands of dollars so far by selling the items to Ukrainians and international buyers.

He and other volunteers have used the funds to purchase drones and GPS jamming equipment, but he saysthe flow of war trophies has waned since Ukraine is now mostly on the defensive along the sprawling 1,300 kmfront line.

"We are not attacking.So we don't have the ability to catch Russians and to get items from them," Shamborovskyisaid in an interview with CBCNews in June in Kyiv.

War trophies for sale

But there are stillwar trophies scattered throughout the store that areup for sale.

Standing in for a doormat at the front of the storeare two flags, one isRussian, the otherrepresentsthe self-proclaimed Russian-backedLuhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, which is unrecognized by the vast majority of countries.

In a hallway hangs a battered street signfrom the city ofBakhmut, a bullet hole punched through one corner.

After Ukraine's 97 brigade shot down a Russian plane, some of the parts made it to the volunteer team in Kyiv.They have since been turned into magnets and mounted on plaques.

The most popular items are Russian patches typically sewn on uniforms theysell for about $150 US.

Shamborovskyi says people have been quite interested in any memorabilia from theWagner military group, but that is in short supply because he saysmany of the fighters were not wearing anything that wouldidentify them as belonging to the private mercenary army that waged the bloody battle for Bakhmut.

Personal items

Hanging on the wall of the shop arepatches from the Russian police and the Russian military, including onename badge reading A. A. Romanov.When Shamborovksyiis asked if it feels weird to have a name tag that was either taken from the uniform of a deadRussian soldier orfound among abandoned gear,he shakes hishead.

"They are enemies who came to kill Ukrainians," hesaid.

"So there are no emotions. Our job is to help front-line fighters to survive."

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He notes thatinterest in the items among Ukrainianshas waned, which he attributes to the fact that the public is "exhausted and tired" of a war that keeps grinding on, but there appears to still be interest from international collectors.

Every few weeks, a former U.K. paratrooper, who asked to be identified only by his nickname, Babbs, for security reasons, receives a shipment of battlefield items from Ukraine.

When heleft the military, Babbsstarted a clothing company called Apostle Tactical, andhe now tries to sell the things he receives from Ukrainethrough his military and retail connections.

The most recent delivery included four Russian helmets that were seized from Klischiivka, a village six km southeast of Bakhmut.

In a video shared on social media, Babbs points out a gaping bullet hole in the front of one helmet and says any of them would be a unique purchase for someone who wants "an authentic piece of history," or someone looking for a cool item for their"man cave or bar."

Interest from international buyers

Babbstold CBCNews that he heard about the team from Komanda-Ex after he saw a post online and ended up buying a Russian flag taken down from a mobile phone tower in Bakhmut. It now hangs in his office in Northampton, England.

He estimates that he's raised the equivalent of $7,000 Cdn. All of the money he gets from the sale of the items goes back to the Ukraine volunteers. Babbssays that before the shipments arrive, he receives video and photos of the items so he can start reaching out to collectors.

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The items are now taking a more circuitous routeout of the country, afterBabbs says Ukraine's post office stopped processing the shipments.

Shamborovskyi explains that this isbecause the post office treats all thepieces as if they were weapons of war and is refusing to sendthem out of Ukraine.

In Babbs's case,the shipmentofhelmets wasdriven out of the country by Lithuainian volunteers, who then mailed the package from Vilnius, Lithuania's capital.

Back in the store in Kyiv, there are no helmets for sale. They are usually bought up quickly and can sell for several hundred dollars.

With demand for other items slowing,Shamborovskyi says they're trying to get creative.On a shelf in front of a row of insulated water bottlesare candles made fromthe casings of 40mm grenades.

The group's most prized item came from Soledar, beforeRussian troops bombarded the salt mining town in January 2023.Ukrainian troops left the area and took with thema heavy model of a train made out of salt.

Shamborovskyihopes it willfetch at least $10,000 US.

If the salt train doesn't sell,he jokes that they have an aspirational plan for when the war is one day over.

"After victory, we will make a tequila party."