Ukraine fakes assassination of 'Putin's personal enemy'

Ukraine has been accused of pulling off a jaw-dropping deception after it emerged that the reported assassination of a notorious anti-Kremlin Russian fighter was staged.

Denis Kapustin, the hard-right leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), is alive and well despite dramatic claims last week that he had been killed in a drone strike on the front line.

Ukraine’s armed forces had announced that Kapustin – also known by his aliases Denis Nikitin and ‘White Rex’ – was wiped out by an FPV drone in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, sparking tributes from his own fighters.

‘We will definitely avenge you, Denis. Your legacy lives on,’ the RVC wrote on Telegram, promising to release further details about his supposed death.

But in a stunning twist, Ukrainian military intelligence today admitted the killing was faked as part of an elaborate special operation designed to save Kapustin’s life – and trick Russia into paying out a $500,000 bounty.

In a video released on the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) Telegram channel, Kapustin appeared alive alongside intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, who congratulated him on his ‘return to life’.

GUR said Kapustin’s assassination ‘was ordered by the special services of the aggressor state Russia, which allocated half a million dollars to carry out the crime.’

‘As a result of a comprehensive special operation,’ his life ‘was preserved, and the circle of individuals was identified: the masterminds within the Russian special services and the perpetrators,’ the agency added.

Budanov described Kapustin as ‘Putin’s personal enemy’ and said the complex ruse took more than a month to carry out.

‘A failure of Russian secret services – the RVC commander is alive, and the half a million dollars received for his “killing” will strengthen DIU special units,’ he said.

Kapustin himself insisted his disappearance had little effect on the battlefield, saying his ‘temporary absence had no impact on the work of the units’. 

He also ‘reported his readiness to continue carrying out combat and special tasks as the head of the unit,’ according to GUR.

The revelation is a major embarrassment for the Kremlin, which had reportedly relied on news of Kapustin’s death after allegedly ordering his assassination and placing a huge bounty on his head.

Kapustin is a controversial figure. A former football hooligan and far-right activist from Moscow, he spent much of his youth in Germany before moving to Kyiv in 2017. 

He later ran the White Rex clothing brand and organised mixed martial arts events, becoming a prominent figure in extremist circles.

Since 2019, he has been banned from entering Europe’s Schengen area over links to far-right movements within the MMA scene. Some of his fighters have openly espoused neo-Nazi views.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kapustin founded the Russian Volunteer Corps to fight alongside Ukrainian forces. 

The group, which has carried out cross-border raids into Russia, is banned there as a terrorist organisation.

The RVC says its members hold ‘conservative views and traditionalist beliefs’ and claims its mission is the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its 1991 borders and the overthrow of Vladimir Putin.

Russia has formally designated Kapustin a terrorist.

The extraordinary episode has drawn comparisons with the notorious 2018 case of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, whose murder was also staged by Ukrainian authorities to foil an alleged Kremlin assassination plot.

At the time, Kyiv shocked the world by announcing Babchenko had been shot dead in his home, only for him to reappear alive at a news conference the following day – prompting outrage among journalists and press freedom groups.

Despite fierce international criticism, Ukraine insisted the deception was necessary to save his life.