kyiv continues to show imagination in combating Russian forces. Appointed this Friday, January 2 as the new chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, Kyrylo Boudanov, until then director of Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), announced Thursday, before his promotion, that his services had faked the death of an anti-Putin Russian military leader to trap several Russian spies. The fighter in question, Denis Kapustin, is the head of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), made up of members of varied ideologies, fighting in favor of Ukraine. “Welcome to life,” said Kyrylo Boudanov, during an exchange on a video published on the encrypted messaging service Telegram.
Money and information
Concretely, what is the principle of this operation? On December 27, the RDK indicated that their leader had been killed in combat. “All details will be announced later, as soon as the circumstances of the incident have been established,” the group communicated on Telegram. “We will avenge you, Denis.” This anti-Putin Russian nationalist, known for his far-right and even neo-Nazi positions, was then shot down the previous night by a drone on the front near Zaporizhia, in the south-east of Ukraine. But this death was in reality only a staged event, orchestrated for several weeks by the Ukrainian secret services.
For kyiv, the objective of the mission was clear: make people believe in the death of Denis Kapoustine to fool Moscow, then take advantage of it to obtain information on Russian spies… and some cash. Indeed, if the death of the military leader was so strategic, it is above all because the Kremlin had put a price on the head of the anti-Putin fighter. Thus, 500,000 dollars was promised by Russia to anyone who managed to assassinate him. A sum which, thanks to the success of this mission, was directly paid to the Ukrainian forces. “I am happy that the money intended for your assassination was used to support our fight,” said Kyrylo Boudanov when announcing this simulation.
Denis Kapoustine, a Russian extremist figure
On the other hand, the other issue on the Ukrainian side was to make Moscow believe in this murder in order to identify spies within the Russian secret services. A successful mission, according to the GUR. As noted by the independent Russian media MedusaUkrainian intelligence also published this Friday fabricated videos sent to the Russian side to prove the alleged death of the military leader. Denis Kapoustine says he is ready to take up arms again as soon as possible. “My temporary absence did not affect the quality or success of the execution of combat missions,” he assured. “I am ready to return to the field and resume command of the RDK unit.”
If he defends Ukraine in its war against Russia, this extremist activist is a controversial personality in the country. A figure in the hooligan world and fan of combat sports like MMA, he promotes an ultranationalist vision of Russia. In 2019, a survey of The mirror revealed that the latter had lived for around ten years in Germany. The Ministry of the Interior of the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia then indicated to the newspaper that Denis Kapoustine had “contributed significantly to the professionalization of the neo-Nazi martial arts scene” across the Rhine. In 2023, researcher Adrien Nonjon, specialist in Ukraine and the post-Soviet far right, described to L’Express this man as “a neo-Nazi businessman, above all guided by his own interests, particularly financial”.
