As far as the Russians were concerned, they had got their man.
Denis Kapustin, one of the anti-Putin Russians fighting on behalf of Ukraine, was reported to have been killed by a drone on the southern front on December 27.
He has long been hunted by Moscow and the price on his head reflects this: Russian intelligence services offered $500,000 (£370,000) to anyone who killed him.
Russia paid it off after news of the successful hit broke this week. But Vladimir Putin’s intelligence services did not know that they had transferred the money directly to Ukraine.
‘Your legacy lives on’
Mr Kapustin, known by his de guerre name “White Rex”, founded the pro-Ukrainian Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) in 2022.
The group made headlines in 2023 and 2024 when it carried out cross-border attacks in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions, and humiliated the Russian president and his generals.
His death was confirmed by RDK. “We will definitely take revenge, Dennis,” the group said in a telegram. “Your legacy lives on.”
Yet on New Year’s Day, in an attempt to boost morale, Mr Kapustin reappeared – alive and well – in a video posted by Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR).
Gen. Kirill Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, has been an effective source of Russian trouble – Laurent van der Stock for Le Monde/Getty
“Welcome back to life,” HUR chief General Kirill Budanov said with a smile. He congratulated Mr. Kapustin and his team on the successful operation to deceive their Russian adversaries.
It turns out that the HUR, along with the RDK, had planned to fake the death of Mr. Kapustin and claimed a $500,000 reward from Russia to be used in Ukraine’s war effort.
“First of all, Mr. Denis, congratulations on your return to life. It is always a pleasure. I am glad that the money earmarked for your assassination was used to support our struggle,” General Budanov added.
Outsmarting the Russians
Russia’s FSB and GRU agencies have long been feared for their brutality.
But Ukrainian intelligence has consistently proven its ability to outsmart its Russian counterparts over nearly four years of war, assassinating generals and Kremlin officials on Russian soil, conducting complex sabotage operations and recruiting Russian agents.
In November, it was reported that Ukraine’s intelligence services had used Russia’s own agents to accept missions openly offered for financial rewards and sabotage its objectives.
In one case, a Ukrainian double-agent accepted a job from Russia’s employment board to build a bomb, which was then handed over to a Russian saboteur.
The bomb, however, was made using flour and seized by Ukraine after Russian agents failed to detonate it.
Ukraine has also claimed responsibility for the assassination of high-ranking Russian officials, while Kiev is suspected of being behind many others.
Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a bombing in April
Scene from the explosion that killed Yaroslav Moskalik – Yuriy Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In April, Yaroslav Moskhalik, deputy chief of Russia’s military’s Main Operations Directorate, was killed in a car bombing on Nesterov Boulevard in the Balshikha suburb of Moscow.
Russian media outlet Baja, which has sources inside law enforcement agencies, said the home-made bomb was attached to a parked Volkswagen car and detonated remotely as Moskalik, who lives in the neighborhood, walked by.
Andriy Portnov, a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawyer, was shot dead in Madrid.
The scene where Andrey Portnov was murdered after dropping his daughters off at school – Sergio García Carrasco/20minutos.es
A month later, a former Ukrainian politician was shot dead at the entrance of a special school in Madrid in what appeared to be a professional hit job.
Andrei Portnov, a pro-Russian politician who works as a close aide to the Moscow regime, was dropping off his daughters when an assassin shot him several times.
The shooting happened at the American School of Madrid when other parents were also running the school.
Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was in charge of training the Kremlin’s armed forces
Consequences of the explosion that killed Sarvarov – Maxim Shipenkov/EPA/Shutterstock
Most recently, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head of the Russian military’s operational training directorate, died in an explosion in Moscow on December 22, possibly planted by Ukrainian special forces.
The force of the blast was such that at least seven cars parked nearby were also damaged
The general worked in the Russian Ministry of Defense and participated in combat operations in Chechnya, Syria and Ossetia, as well as Ukraine.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who was killed by explosives hidden in an e-scooter – AP
Among the most notable assassinations was that of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov on December 17, 2024.
The bomb was detonated using a remote control hidden inside the electric scooter of the official in charge of Russia’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
“Kirilov was a war criminal and a completely legitimate target, as he ordered the use of banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces,” a Ukrainian security source said.
Eruption after Kirillov’s assassination – via Sefa Karakan/Anadolu Getty
In a daring campaign in June 2025 – dubbed Operation Spiderweb – Ukraine-operated drones destroyed several Russian surveillance aircraft and nuclear-capable bombers, which Kiev officials said rendered a third of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers useless.
In another major win for spies in Ukraine, the drones were smuggled into Russia and assembled, and launched from trucks deep inside Russian territory.
Ukraine’s latest intelligence breakthrough means Denis Kapustin, a far-right extremist and former football hooligan, is inside Ukrainian territory and “ready to continue assigned tasks”, a Ukrainian commander said.
The commander’s family moved from Moscow to Germany when Mr. Kapustin was 17, and he moved to Ukraine in 2017.
Since 2019, he has been banned from entering the Schengen area for promoting neo-Nazi ideology.
In the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Mr. Kapustin helped establish the units that would become Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade, which played a key role in defending Kiev and later became famous for its fierce fighting on the Eastern Front.
Reacting to reports of his death, the Third Army Corps said: “Together we faced a common enemy in the battle for Kiev.”
It added on December 27: “He understood [Ukraine] As a place of real resistance and freedom.
In August 2022, Mr Kapustin founded the RDK with the goal of overthrowing Putin to bring “peace to Russia”. It aims to end Putin’s reign of “lies, corruption and chaos”.
Imprisoned in absentia
It is made up of former Wagner Group recruits, some former FSB agents and civilian volunteers. Russia considers it a terrorist organization.
Russian courts have twice sentenced Mr Kapustin to life imprisonment in absentia on charges of treason and terrorism.
In March 2024, the RDK entered Russia along with other anti-Kremlin militias in tanks and armored vehicles. It clashed with Russian security services and captured Russian soldiers.
Kiev said it was fighting as part of Ukraine’s military, under its command, and that the incursion into Russia was not on Kiev’s orders.
Since its attacks, the group has either been fighting on the front or engaged in cross-border sabotage operations in Russia.
‘White’, a former Wagner Group member, is now a soldier in the Russian Volunteer Corps – Ximena Borrazás
In an interview with The Telegraph in September, the RDK commander, known only as “White,” described how he joined to exact revenge on Putin for invading Ukraine, a 26-year-old Russian volunteer.
“We fight to change something in Russia,” he said. “When the war ends, I will fight until Putin falls.”
