The Russian leader of a Ukrainian anti-Putin paramilitary group was killed in combat overnight in the Zaporizhzhia region, his unit announced Saturday.
Denis Kaputsin, the leading commander of the right-wing Russian Volunteer Corps — a militia fighting against strongman Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine — was killed by a drone strike on the frontline.
“Kapustin died heroically during a combat mission,” the RVC wrote on Telegram. “We will definitely take revenge, Denis. Your legacy lives on.”
“His way of life as a warrior never diverged from his words. Denis was fearless and honest. He died during a combat trip as a man,” the post added.
Kapustin, 41, who was also known as Denis Nikitin and “White Rex,” had reportedly been living in Ukraine since 2017.
His family moved from Moscow to Germany when he was 17, before he relocated to Ukraine. Shortly after that, he became banned from most European countries for his involvement in football hooliganism and his neo-Nazi views — a label he’s disputed.
When Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kapustin helped set up what would later become Ukraine’s elite Third Assault Brigade.
He then built the Russian Volunteer Corps a few months later, vowing to “wage an armed combat against the dictatorship of Putin and his entourage, depriving Russia of a future,” the corps’ the corps’ website reads.
The militia made headlines since the start of the war for its cross-border incursions into Russia border villages, capturing dozens of Russians in the process — with Putin slamming them as “saboteurs” and “terrorists.”
After one of the incursions in March 2023, Kapustin was put on the Kremlin’s registry of “terrorist and extremists,” and added to Russia’ Interior Ministry’s wanted list the same month, according to the Moscow Times.
