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 that he and other volunteers are connected with have 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. 

Throughout history, soldiers and militaries have kept enemy weaponry and equipment as personal souvenirs and historical artifacts. 

While items often end up in official museum collections — like some of the thousands of guns and artillery pieces seized by the Canadian Corps during the First World War — others are kept by individuals or sold to private collectors. 

A communications representative from Ukraine's Ministry of Defence told CBC News that, particularly during the early months of the invasion, the public was keen to purchase war trophies, because usually the money is used to buy equipment for troops on the frontline.

Shamborovskyi estimates that this group has raised 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 says the flow of war trophies has waned since Ukraine is now mostly on the defensive along the sprawling 1,300 km front line.

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

But there are still war trophies scattered throughout the store that are up for sale. 

Standing in for a doormat at the front of the store are two flags, one is Russian, the other represents the self-proclaimed Russian-backed Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, which is unrecognized by the vast majority of countries. 

In a hallway hangs a battered street sign from the city of Bakhmut, 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.