As far as the Russians were concerned, they had taken their man.
Denis Kapustin, one of the leading anti-Putin Russians fighting on behalf of Ukraine, was pronounced dead on December 27, killed by a drone on the southern front.
He had long been hunted by Moscow and the price on his head reflected this: Russian intelligence services were offering $500,000 (£370,000) to anyone who killed him.
Russia paid for it after news of the blockbuster hit broke this week. But what Vladimir Putin’s intelligence services didn’t know was that they were handing over the money directly to Ukraine.
“Your Legacy Lives On”
Mr Kapustin, known by his nom de guerre “White Rex”, founded the pro-Ukraine Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) in 2022.
The group made headlines in 2023 and 2024 when it carried out cross-border incursions into Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions, humiliating the Russian president and his generals.
His death was first confirmed by RDK himself. “We will definitely take revenge, Denis,” the group said on Telegram. “Your legacy lives on.”
However, on New Year’s Day, in a morale-boosting ruse, Mr Kapustin reappeared – alive and unharmed – in a video posted by Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR).
General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, was an effective source of Russian trouble – Laurent Van der Stockt for Le Monde/Getty
“Welcome back to life,” said HUR chief General Kyrylo Budanov with a wry smile. He congratulated Mr. Kapustin and his team on the successful operation to deceive their Russian adversaries.
It appears that HUR, along with RDK, hatched a plan to fake Mr. Kapustin’s death and claim the $500,000 bounty from Russia for themselves, to be used in Ukraine’s war effort.
“First of all, Mr. Denis, congratulations on coming back to life. It’s always a pleasure. I’m glad that the money allocated for your assassination was used to support our fight,” added General Budanov.
Outrunning the Russians
Russia’s FSB and GRU agencies have long been feared for their ruthlessness.
But Ukrainian intelligence services, throughout the nearly four-year war, have consistently proven their ability to outsmart their Russian counterparts, carrying out assassinations of Kremlin generals and officials on Russian soil, orchestrating complex sabotage operations and recruiting Russian operatives.
In November, it was reported that Ukraine’s intelligence services used Russia’s own agents to accept missions openly offered by the FSB for financial reward and to sabotage its objectives.
In one case, a Ukrainian double agent accepted an assignment from a Russian job board to build a bomb, which was then handed to a Russian saboteur.
The bomb, however, was made of flour, and the Russian agent was captured by Ukraine after failing to detonate it.
Ukraine has also claimed responsibility for the assassination of several high-ranking Russian officials, while Kiev is suspected of being behind many others.
Yaroslav Moskalik was killed by a bomb in April
The site of the explosion where Yaroslav Moskalik was killed – Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In April, Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the Russian military’s main operations directorate, was killed by a car bomb on Nesterov Boulevard in the Moscow suburb of Balashikha.
Baza, a Russian news outlet with sources inside law enforcement agencies, said the homemade bomb was strapped to a parked Volkswagen car and detonated remotely when Moskalik, who lived in the neighborhood, drove by.
Ukrainian pro-Russian lawyer Andriy Portnov was shot dead in Madrid – Unian
The scene where Andriy Portnov was assassinated after dropping his daughters off at school – Sergio García Carrasco/20minutos.es
A month later, a former Ukrainian politician was shot dead in what appeared to be a successful professional job at the entrance to an exclusive school in Madrid.
Andriy Portnov, a pro-Russian politician who worked as a close aide to the regime in Moscow, was dropping off his daughters when an assassin shot him multiple times.
The shooting happened at the American School of Madrid while other parents were making the school run.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov was in charge of training the Kremlin’s armed forces
Traces 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 a Dec. 22 explosion in Moscow, likely planted by Ukrainian special forces.
The force of the blast was such that at least seven cars parked nearby also sustained damage
The general worked in the Russian Ministry of Defense and participated in combat operations in Chechnya, Syria and Ossetia, as well as in Ukraine.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who was killed by an explosive hidden in an electric scooter – AP
Among the most striking assassinations was the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov on December 17, 2024.
The officer, who was in charge of Russia’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, was killed by a remotely detonated device hidden inside an electric scooter.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target because he gave orders to use banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” a Ukrainian security source said.
The aftermath of the explosion after Kirillov’s assassination – Sefa Karacan/Anadolu via Getty
In a daring mission in June 2025 – dubbed Operation Spiderweb – drones operated by Ukraine destroyed several Russian surveillance planes and nuclear-capable bombers, which officials in Kiev said rendered a third of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers useless.
The drones were smuggled into Russia and assembled and launched from trucks deep into Russian territory in another huge win for Ukraine’s spies.
The latest success by Ukraine’s secret services means Denis Kapustin, a far-right extremist and former football hooligan, is on Ukrainian soil and “preparing to continue to carry out his assigned duties,” a Ukrainian commander said.
The commander’s family moved from Moscow to Germany when Mr. Kapustin was 17 and 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 units that would become Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, which played a key role in the defense of Kiev and later became famous for fierce fighting on the eastern front.
Responding to reports of his death, the 3rd Army Corps said: “We faced the common enemy together in the battle of Kiev.”
On December 27 he added: “He perceived [Ukraine] as a place of real resistance and freedom.”
In August 2022, Mr Kapustin founded the RDK, with the aim of overthrowing Putin to bring “peace to Russia”. Its stated aim is to end Putin’s regime of “lies, corruption and lawlessness”.
Closed in absentia
It consists of former Wagner Group recruits, some former FSB agents and civilian volunteers. It is considered a terrorist organization by Russia.
Russian courts have twice sentenced Mr. Kapustin to life in prison in absentia on charges of treason and terrorism.
In March 2024, the RDK entered Russia alongside other anti-Kremlin militias on tanks and armored vehicles. He clashed with Russian security services and captured Russian soldiers.
Kiev has said that while it is fighting as part of Ukraine’s military, under its command, the incursions into Russia have not taken place under Kiev’s orders.
Since its incursions, the group has either been fighting on the front or engaging in cross-border sabotage operations in Russia.
‘White’, former member of the Wagner Group, is now a soldier in the Russian Volunteer Corps – Ximena Borrazás
In an interview with The Telegraph in September, a RDK commander known only as “White”, a 26-year-old Russian volunteer, described how he joined to take revenge on Putin for invading Ukraine.
“We are fighting to change something in Russia,” he said. “When the war is over, I will continue to fight until Putin falls.”