Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence at the Defense Ministry (GUR) released two videos meant to convince the Russian Federation that Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) commander Denis Kapustin had been killed. Russia paid half a million dollars for the footage - but Kapustin is alive.
According to a GUR statement, operatives sent Russia an FPV-drone strike video purportedly flying straight into Kapustin’s vehicle. A second clip — from a reconnaissance drone — captures the supposed “hit.” The multi-stage special operation was carried out by the Timur Group, which prepared fabricated footage to stage the RVC commander’s “death.”
The FPV strike sequence shows a snow-covered landscape, a white minivan and a man in dark clothing whose silhouette resembles Denis Kapustin. He stands by the van’s open doors as a drone flies inside. An observer drone records the blast and a fireball engulfing the vehicle after the “impact.”
GUR said the fake videos were sent to clients in Russia’s security services, who paid $500,000 for them - money that will be put to use by Ukraine’s Defense Forces.
Reports of Denis Kapustin’s “death” emerged on December 27, 2025.
GUR issued a statement on the death of the RDK commander with the call sign WhiteRex, saying it happened on an unspecified sector of the Zaporizhzhia front. Ukrainian intelligence promised to determine all the circumstances of the commander’s death and expressed condolences over the loss of a comrade-in-arms. The RDK also commented on social media. On December 29, its fighters vowed to keep fighting “Kremlin evil” and recalled WhiteRex’s words that the unit would remain a threat to Russia as long as the Kremlin regime endures.
However, on the afternoon of January 1, GUR announced that Kapustin is alive.
It turned out Ukraine ran a special operation staging his death — and got paid for the supposed assignment.
“To preserve the life of the commander of the ‘Russian Volunteer Corps’ within the ‘Timur special unit of Ukraine’s GUR and to expose the enemy agent network, military intelligence conducted a complex, multi-stage special operation during which his death was staged. To support the legend, they created footage of two strike drones: the first UAV flew into the minibus carrying Kapustin; the second captured the ‘aftermath of the strike’ - a burning vehicle,” GUR said.
Russia’s Interior Ministry has re-listed Denis Kapustin, founder of the “Russian Volunteer Corps” (RDK), as wanted after Ukrainian intelligence said reports of his death were staged. The updated note appeared on his wanted card on the Interior Ministry’s website, the Russian news agency RBC reported.
Denis Kapustin is a 41-year-old Russian citizen who joined Ukraine’s military in the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. On his initiative, the Russian Volunteer Corps was formed within GUR’s structure. The unit included former Russian POWs who agreed to switch sides; they were vetted before being allowed into combat. Among other operations, RVC fighters carried out raids in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions and fought along various stretches of the front in Donetsk and other regions of Ukraine.
