He was the right-wing Russian commander of a notorious Ukrainian-backed paramilitary group, whose cross-border raids in 2023 rattled Russian officials.
Denis Nikitin’s leadership of the Russian Volunteer Corps put him the cross-hairs of Russian officials.
So when reports emerged last week that he had been killed in a drone attack in eastern Ukraine, Russian war bloggers and nationalist commentators were eager to dance on his grave.
Not so fast, according to the enigmatic head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency: Nikitin, who also uses the name Kapustin or White Rex, is in fact alive. And the $500,000 bounty that Russia put out on his head was purportedly collected by Ukrainians themselves.
The plot involving Nikitin is a small window into some of the psychological warfare, and feint-and-ruse ploys known widely as maskirovka, that Ukrainian forces -- not to mention Russian forces -- have used over the course of Moscow’s nearly four-year-old all-out war on Ukraine.
Prior to the onset of the invasion, Nikitin, a former mixed martial arts fighter, was not widely known outside of neo-Nazi groups and “ultra” soccer hooligans in Russia and elsewhere. He launched a clothing-and-apparel line known as White Rex, a nod to his white nationalist ideology.
SEE ALSO: Azov, Ukraine's Most Prominent Ultranationalist Group, Sets Its Sights On U.S., EuropeHis activities in right-wing subculture in Germany drew the attention of law enforcement in North Rhine-Westphalia state, which called him "one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists and the creator of a professional fighting subculture."
About a year after the launch of the Kremlin's February 2022 invasion, a militia group made up mainly of Russians began conducting raids from Ukraine into Russia.
At the time, Russia’s invasion had faltered, and Ukrainian officials were looking to further rewrite the narrative of the war, to both bolster domestic morale but also to show Western backers Kyiv’s capacity for innovative and daring thinking.
In May 2023, fighters from the Russian Volunteer Corps staged the first of a series of raids into Russia’s Belgorod region. Russia said it had repelled the attack, and it released photographs of US military vehicles -- including Humvees -- that it said were destroyed.
Though Ukraine officials denied involvement, the presence of US-supplied military vehicles by a murky paramilitary prompted concern from the US administration, which at the time was still cautioning restraint from Ukraine.
Other similar militias include the Free Russia Legion.
As Ukraine built up its confidence, and capacity, it sent its own regular forces on cross-border raids early last year.
Humvees, Wreckage After 'Cross-Border Raid' Into Russia
Russia, meanwhile, designated the Volunteer Corps to be a terrorist organization, and tried Nikitin in absentia, sentencing him to life in prison. It also put out a $500,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
On December 27, the Russian Volunteer Corps announced Nikitin had been killed by a Russian drone somewhere in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region. Inside Ukraine, Nikitin was mourned by some as a martyr and a hero. Inside Russia, some bloggers crowed about his death.
Five days later, however, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known as the HUR, released a video in which he declared the reports of Nikitin’s death a ruse. The ploy, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov said, was aimed at identifying Russians who were seeking to assassinate Nikitin.
Budanov, who separately was appointed to the powerful position of presidential chief of staff by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also claimed that the reward money posted by Russia had been obtained, apparently by Ukrainian sources.
“I congratulate you on your return to life. It is always pleasant,” Budanov said in the video. “I am glad that the funds received for ordering your liquidation went to help our struggle.”
Nikitin appeared in Budanov’s video as well, though it was impossible verify when and where it was filmed.
A day later, HUR released another video: footage from a "first-person-view" drone that purported to show a direct hit on Kapustin, standing alongside a white minivan. In fact, the agency said, the video was edited, and was presented to unnamed officials as a way to claim the reward.
The HUR’s embrace of a known neo-Nazi has also raised eyebrows. Among the rationales Russia has claimed in launching its invasion is the assertion that Ukraine’s government is run by Nazis -- a claim with deep historical roots dating well back into the Soviet era.
One of Ukraine’s most capable fighting units, the Azov Brigade, has tried to shed its past reputation as a magnet for far-right extremism, and is now a formal part of Ukraine’s armed forces.