the former legionnaire who deceived Zelenski and defrauded thousands of euros with false exploits

“But what he published in his profiles did not quite fit, the stories he told and especially his military career in Spain: claimed that he had been serving almost ten years in the Spanish Legionbut I am a legionnaire and no one knew him there“, apostille.

A few weeks after that exchange of messages, Juan Manuel Lucena Carmonaknown as john the legionnaireappeared on the television program led by Risto Mejide in Four. Was in a bed in an Odessa hospitalrecovering from several injuries and showing a selfie in which he appeared with the president Zelensky. From there it went viral and numerous newspapers collected his testimony.

But already then, the things that counted in the interviews did not fit with reality in most cases: “A black and red cloud surrounded me, it looked like hell”he narrated then to describe the supposed direct artillery attack that prostrated him in the hospital bed.

“He had several fingers severed cleanly and wounds on one thigh, something that match with the injuries that occur by mishandling an initiator. The starters have to be squeezed with pliers to hold the wick, and if you push it too hard they explode because they are quite unstable,” explains Willy.

“I have seen various colleagues to whom it has happened, and the wounds are exactly like the ones Juan had. I have also seen soldiers in the Ukraine who have been hit by an artillery attack nearby, like the one who claimed to have received he and we had to take them out in piecesliterally, arms on one side, legs for another and bodies split in half“, sentence.

The severity of the casebeyond the fanciful stories and exaggerations to seem like a hero, lies in the fact that john the legionnaire has used its experience in Ukraine –about which he has also lied– to commit a alleged massive scam with which you have been able to obtain thousands of euros of donations from Spanish and Ukrainian citizens.

Thousands of euros scammed

“We paid for the trip to kyiv, we bought him clothes and technical material, uniforms so that he was well equipped, but he kept asking us for more money from there“explains on the other end of the phone a marriage settled in Spainwho prefers to remain anonymous.

“we made him transfers worth 2,500 eurosand we spend with him other 1,000 euro approximately, in buying material and paying for the trip”, they add. 3,500 euro –which EL ESPAÑOL has been able to verify that he received by looking at the extracts of the transfers–, could be added hundreds of donations from other individuals based on the comments they wrote to him on his Instagram: “You already have my 50 euros for your cause” either “There goes another 200 euros”are some examples.

Some of the people who made donations were blocked by john the legionnaire. Just like the couple who paid for his trip to Ukraine, and who asked him for explanations of how he had spent the money they sent him after verifying that he had not bought material for his unit. “We send you 1,000 euros for uniforms”they remember.

“In addition to that, we know that several Ukrainian people also gave him cash, because he told them that he was fighting for his country and that he needed material,” they add indignantly. “We know of another person, Dimitri, who gave him more than 560 euros in hand in kyiv”.

[Rusia fortifica Melitopol: el objetivo más probable de la contraofensiva de Ucrania en primavera]

But to your unit not a single hryvnia ever arrived (Ukrainian currency), neither material of any kind: “The Spanish was in my unit, but never fought and never gave us money or material; all it gave us was trouble“, says emphatically Kovalenko (combat alias) a soldier who coincided with Juan the legionnaire in the 129 Separate Defense Brigade territory during their deployments in Lviv and dnipro.

“He was a danger to our unit: photographed the positions and He uploaded the photos to his Instagram., the next day we were bombarded and there were injuries. after that, got a position in the third line and he dedicated himself to training because no partner wanted him around; never fought at the front” he adds.

The 4×4 that never came

That happened during his first months in the Ukraine, before he was injured, but even then he was more concerned with campaigning for money than with going to the front of combat.

Another Spanish soldier who continues to fight as a volunteer in Ukraine, Pedrocontacted Juan the legionnaire when he saw that he was asking for money for buy a 4×4 vehicle. Raising funds through Instagram to buy vehicles or drones is something that Ukrainian units usually do – they are two of the “consumables” that destroy the most when they are in a combat zone. But Pedro thought the details that Juan provided were strange.

“I spoke with him through networks because I smelled weird the 4×4 thing and some other things that I had seen him publish, and I wanted to meet him. We arranged to see each other during a rotation, but he never showed up, “explains this soldier who is the one who has thrown the blanket.

usurping military rank

Juan Manuel Lucena Carmonawhich is what it’s really called john the legionnaireappears in one of the royal decrees published in the BOE in the year 2002 for which he was “grants partial pardon” after being “sentenced by the Second Territorial Military Court of Seville to eight months in prison […] for crime of disloyalty [tipificado] in article 115 of the Military Penal Code”.

[“La táctica chechena”: así ha causado Ucrania 4.000 bajas rusas en dos semanas en Bakhmut]

In his Instagram profile, he assures that he served in the Tercio Grand Captain 1st of the Legion, II Flag 6th Company Children of the Nightbetween 2013 and July 2022. According to the crime of disloyalty included in the BOE, taking into account that in March 2022 he already entered Ukraine -for which reason he would have abandoned his post in Spain and could face a Council of War–, and that the II Flag of the Spanish Legion was dissolved in 2009, the trajectory it describes is completely impossible.

Other military sources who served in the Spanish Legion have not been able to verify that it was Corporal 1º at no time, so, in addition, he would be using a military rank that he never held. What everyone resoundingly assures is that the stories that he had in the Cuatro program and in the newspapers that gave him a voice were absolutely fanciful.

In these interviews he presented himself as a commander of a Ukrainian battalion, which is flatly false: there is not a single foreign battalion commander in Ukraine, even though the battalion is made up of international volunteers, the commanders are always Ukrainian. Another lie out in the open about his alleged military jobs.

restricted social networks

In addition to exaggerating the story about the reason for his injuries, to continue raising money after leaving the hospital, Juan the legionnaire came to say that he was fighting in Bakhmut and that he saw with his own eyes a basement where there were more than 200 civilians without food or water for two months.

It is not necessary to explain here that no one survives two months without food or water, but also, whoever subscribed these lines entered the city of Bakhmut on several occasions during the month of February -then they closed access to the press-, and the volunteers continued bringing food to the invincibility points where the civilians took refuge.

In addition, his former colleagues from the 129th assure that after leaving the hospital he was assigned to a logistics post far from the front, so it is impossible for him to have reached places like Bakhmut before returning to Spain -in February of this year-, according to him, “by presidential order of Zelensky”. Which is also false.

“Denying what he says is easyI can show videos of what it’s really like to fight on the front line, that’s not the problem,” continues Willy. “The problem is that he is robbing a lot of people”interrupts another of his companions. “A lot of people have donated to him, a lot”he exclaims indignantly.

Y precisamente han sido estos militares españoles, hartos de sus mentiras, los que empezaron a denunciar en redes a Juan el legionario, que respondía bloqueando a todo aquel que dudaba de sus fantasiosos relatos. También bloqueó a la gente que le pedía explicaciones de dónde había ido a parar realmente el dinero que le habían dado.

En el transcurso de las últimas horas, ha puesto en modo privado su perfil de Instagram y ya no se puede ver su actividad. Pero en los últimos post que publicó antes de cerrar el acceso se le veía dando conferencias y participando en actos organizados por asociaciones de ucranianos en España que, obviamente, desconocerían que es un presunto estafador que ha utilizado la guerra de Ucrania y a los que realmente dan su vida en ella para lucrarse económicamente.

Guerra Rusia -Ucrania

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