If there’s one thing Gen Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR, likes almost as much as defeating Russians, it’s humiliating Russians. In this case, an elaborate plot, conceived over months, to convince Russia that one of their biggest targets had been killed in Ukraine. Their ruse proved so well done that Russia paid the $500,000 reward for his death. Or non-death, as a few days later Kasputin appeared in a video with Budanov, alive and well.
“Welcome back to life,” Gen Kyrylo Budanov, head of HUR, said with a wry smile.
Source: Telegraph
As far as the Russians were concerned, they had got their man.
Denis Kapustin, one of the most prominent anti-Putin Russians fighting on behalf of Ukraine, was reported dead on Dec 27, assassinated 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 had offered $500,000 (£370,000) to anyone who killed him.
Russia paid this out after news broke of the successful hit this week. But what Vladimir Putin’s intelligence services did not know was that they had handed the money directly to Ukraine.
Mr Kapustin, known by his nom de guerre “White Rex”, founded the pro-Ukrainian 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 the RDK itself. “We will definitely take revenge, Denis,” the group said on Telegram. “Your legacy lives on.”
Yet on New Year’s Day, in a morale-raising ruse, Mr Kapustin re-emerged – alive and unscathed – in a video posted by Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR).
“Welcome back to life,” Gen Kyrylo Budanov, head of HUR, said with a wry smile. He congratulated Mr Kapustin and his team on a successful operation to deceive their Russian adversaries.
And how did they do that? With a fake drone video, one before and after the drone attack and then edited together to make it appear Mr Kasputin was blown to smithereens.
UPDATE: Yesterday, General Budanov was made the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, effectively Zelensky’s right-hand man and the number two person in the government of Ukraine. He turns 40 tomorrow.
