Ukraine fakes assassination of Putins enemy and | Political News

Ukraine has been accused of pulling off a staged assassination of an anti-Kremlin Russian fighter.

Denis Kapustin, the chief of the Russian Volunteer Corps, is alive, despite claims that he had been killed in a drone strike last week. Ukraine‘s armed forces had announced that Kaspustin, also identified as Denis Nikitin and “White Rex,” was killed by an FPV drone in the southern Zaporizhzhia area.

News of Kapustin’s demise sparked tributes from his fighters. “We will definitely avenge you, Denis. Your legacy lives on,” the RVC wrote on Telegram, promising to release more particulars about his supposed death.

However, Ukrainian army intelligence admitted today that the killing was faked as half of an elaborate particular operation to save Kapustin’s life. The scheme also tricked Russia into paying out a $500,000 bounty.

The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) Telegram channel launched a video of Kapustin alive, alongside intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, who congratulated Kapustin 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 company added.

Budanov called Kapustin “Putin’s personal enemy” and said the trick took more than a month to perform. “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.

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Kapustin himself said his disappearance had little impact on the battlefield, stating that 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,” said GUR.

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

Kapustin’s past

A former soccer participant and far-right activist from Russia, Kapustin is a controversial determine. He spent a lot of his childhood in Germany before transferring to Kyiv in 2017. He ran the White Rex clothes model and organized blended martial arts occasions, changing into a central determine in extremist communities.

He has been banned from getting into the European Schengen space since 2019 due to his hyperlinks to far-right actions within the MMA scene. Some of his fighters have overtly expressed neo-Nazi views.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kapustin based the RVC to struggle alongside Ukrainian troops. The group has carried out cross-border raids into Russia. It is banned in the nation and designated as a terrorist group.

The RVC has said its members maintain “conservative views and traditionalist beliefs” and claims its mission is to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its 1991 borders and to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The whole plot has drawn comparisons with the 2018 case of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, whose homicide was staged by Ukrainian officers to damage an alleged assassination plot by the Kremlin. At the time, Kyiv pulled off the plan but saying that Babchenko had been shot lifeless in his home.

But Babchenko appeared alive and properly at a news convention the next day, prompting outrage from reporters and press freedom teams. Ukraine said the deception was needed to save Babchenko’s life.