Kathrine Frich
The news of his death was a clever hoax.
War forces people to make choices that once seemed impossible.
For some, the ultimate test of loyalty means picking up a weapon and turning it directly against the land of their birth.
A complicated past
Denis Kapustin has lived many different lives. The 42-year-old Moscow native has been a football hooligan, a mixed martial arts promoter, and the owner of an aggressive clothing brand.
Now, he commands the Russian Volunteer Corps, a rebel military unit fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
He knows the extreme stakes of his choice. If Russian forces catch him on the battlefield, he faces certain torture and execution. To avoid this grim fate, Kapustin constantly carries a live hand grenade tucked under his heavy body armor.
He is fully prepared to use the weapon on himself. “Without hesitation,” Kapustin told the Daily Express. He added that two of his soldiers have already committed suicide in similar situations to avoid being taken prisoner.
Fighting the homeland
Kapustin moved to Germany as a teenager before eventually settling in Kyiv. Although he initially fell for Moscow’s state media claims during the 2014 annexation of Crimea, his Ukrainian friends soon changed his mind.
When the full-scale invasion began in 2022, his loyalty was already set. He quickly joined a local civilian militia to protect his adopted home and his young family.
Later, he founded his rebel unit under the wing of Ukrainian military intelligence. His group is made up of Russian citizens who want to defeat the Kremlin.
“I wanted to fight for the freedoms that Ukraine gave people rather than the terrorist state of Russia which tortured its own people,” Kapustin said in the interview.
A wild trick
His high-profile combat role has made him a prime target for assassination. In late 2025, reports spread that a Russian drone strike had killed him in southern Ukraine.
His comrades even publicly vowed to avenge his death.
But the news of his death was a clever hoax. Ukrainian intelligence had faked the entire event to fool Russian secret services.
The sting operation actually tricked Russian agencies into paying out half a million dollars to the assassins, which Ukraine kept.
The ruse worked perfectly for the war effort. “I am alive and Ukraine has 500,000 bucks to use for its military so it was a good outcome,” Kapustin said with a smile.
Sources: Daily Express
