Denis Kapustin is the commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a unit that rose to prominence in March 2023 after its incursion into the Russian region of Bryansk. Kapustin, who defines himself as a right-wing Russian nationalist and rejects the labels of extremist attributed to him on the internet, moved to Kyiv in 2017 and in August 2022 founded the RDK, a military force made up of Russian citizens to defend Ukraine against Putin’s army invasion and part of the International Legion of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces. Russia designated the RDK as a terrorist organization and tried Kapustin in absentia, sentencing him to life imprisonment and offering a reward of $500,000 for his capture. On December 27, the RDK announced Kapustin’s death by a Russian drone in Zaporizhia, However, five days later, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR), Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, released a video in which he appeared alongside Kapustin, welcoming him back to life and confirming that it had all been an intelligence operation to identify the agents attempting to assassinate the commander of the RDK and collect the reward.
I imagine you can’t give me details about the operation that led to your “death,” but it is undoubtedly one of the great intelligence operations of this war.
I hope and expect that the major military operations are yet to come, but the Ministry of Defense is very satisfied with the outcome of this psychological warfare operation, and I think we will see even more cool operations. However, so far, this has been a very successful operation and the last one before Mr. Budanov joined the presidential office.
Do you know if the success of this operation caused any immediate dismissals in the FSB chain of command?
I am absolutely certain that this was the case. For them, this was like a New Year’s celebration, Russia’s biggest holiday, and they were extremely happy with this victory, with my death, because it would bring them, surely because they had been promised it, promotion, a higher salary, better conditions, etc. So we can imagine how they had celebrated and how terrible the morning must have been when they started receiving calls from their superiors to come to their offices because I was still alive.
The news of your death were also celebrated by Leonid Volkov, a Russian opposition figure living in Lithuania whose statements could cause him to lose his political asylum status.
Yes, he was celebrating my death, even though we are supposed to be on the same side because Putin is our enemy. Putin is definitely my enemy and that of the Russian people, but for Mr. Volkov and the opposition he represents, it seems that I am the enemy, and he was very happy that a drone had eliminated me. When I read his message and retweeted it, I wrote just two words: Masks off. There are many people who want to act like they are opposing Putin and like Russian freedom fighters, but they see us as competitors, not as allies against Putin. They want to be the first in that competition, but we are the ones fighting and dying in a real battle, while they just talk on social media, safe in the West, about how they want to fight Putin and how terrible his regime is. Of course, Mr. Volkov finds it uncomfortable when it comes to light that they are not the only fighters, nor the hardest, and that the RDK does much more than they do. The international media and politicians must understand who the real opposition to Putin is and who is simply wearing a mask of freedom fighters.
After its most well-known operations in Bryansk and Belgorod, what kind of operations is the RDK carrying out?
In recent weeks, the unit has been on the front lines in military operations, and we will soon be releasing videos of us taking prisoners of war. We are also carrying out psychological warfare operations, which are very effective, as we have already seen. And we have recruited new recruits who have begun their work on the front lines. The war continues, and our work continues.
Your unit was formed with Russians living in Ukraine, but where do your new recruits come from? Are they prisoners of war or people who have fled Russia? What is their motivation?
Yes, we have two types of volunteers. Russians who were living in Europe or who have left Russia to join us, and prisoners of war who want to join us to fight against Putin. Many of them feel utterly betrayed, others say they were in prison and signed a contract because they had no other choice, and they deserted as soon as they had a chance because they didn’t want to fight for the regime. Many prisoners of war, once they realize that everything they had been told in Russia is a lie, such as that Ukrainians are bloodthirsty Nazis who only want to kill and maim, and when they see that they are treated better in Ukrainian captivity than in their own army, they begin to understand that they came to a foreign country to invade it and kill those who protect it, and that they are not fighting a righteous war. In Russia, they were told that they were going to fight NATO to protect Russia and that they were fighting absolute evil, and when they are treated like human beings by their captors and are not exposed to propaganda 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they begin to feel like criminals who have broken into their neighbor’s house to steal and murder.
Of course, there are also people who voluntarily signed a contract to escape poverty by joining the army, but again, they are being deceived because they are told that Russia is winning the war and that Ukrainians are fleeing. We have captured Russian soldiers who had not even received their first monthly paycheck, because less than a month had passed between the time they signed the contract and the time we took them prisoner. When these men see the difference, see our equipment, our capability, and our motivation, they are shocked and in many cases want to join us. I have taken prisoners who have then fought side by side in our ranks.
In other words, you show your compatriots that they are being deceived. Is this why the Kremlin hates your unit so much?
That’s right, and from the very beginning I have made it clear to the Ukrainian authorities that our military work will never be as big as our media work. We have participated in very serious military operations throughout Ukraine and on Russian territory, and we continue to do so, but our media work is extremely painful for the Russian side because we stand as a beacon of hope within Putin’s forces. Before the RDK was born, people who didn’t like Putin had no way to stand up to the regime, but now they can join the unit and fight against him. This is very important because for Russia it means one less soldier who can be recruited, and for Ukraine it means one more soldier in the fight.
During your operations on Russian territory, you have come into contact with civilians. What was their reaction when they saw that you were Russian soldiers?
People don’t want to interfere in any way. Some understand who we are and others don’t, but they see that we are armed and doing our job, and they simply go back into their homes. The Russian population is not going to fight to defend Putin. We saw this when Prigozhin marched on Moscow; there was no organized force to confront him, no one took up arms to defend the president. Obviously, people are unhappy with what is happening in Russia, but they are too afraid to protest. So when someone is willing to protest, they may not join in, but they are not going to get in the way.
There has been a lot of talk about peace negotiations in recent months. What do you think when someone says that Putin wants peace?
I think it’s a lie. Putin wants the rest of the world to fear, or at least respect, “his” Russia, because he still thinks of the Soviet Union as the global superpower that it once was and no longer is. And he believes that the best way to earn respect is through war, so I don’t think he’s seeking peace. This war is based on revenge, because Putin believes that the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century was the collapse of the USSR that came after its defeat in the Cold War, and this is his revenge. If the war stops right now, Putin cannot be satisfied because he cannot sell his current achievements as a victory. The cities he has taken, such as Bakhmut or Avdiivka, are just ruins that no one in Moscow could put on a map. I have been there and there is nothing left. Russia is paying an extremely high price to gain more territory, when it is the largest country in the world. It makes no sense.
This war recently surpassed the length of the Great Patriotic War in Russia, and many realize that during the same time that the Red Army was able to march from Stalingrad to Berlin, Putin’s army has only advanced 38 kilometers and is not even capable of conquering the entire Donbas. Putin has two problems: he cannot present this as a victory, as he did with Crimea, and the large number of convicts in the Russian army. The Russian government knows that when this war ends, a huge horde of criminals will return to their homes in Russia with weapons and military experience, and the wave of crime they will produce will be overwhelming.
Do you think that, given the huge number of casualties, Putin will be forced to carry out a new mobilization? If so, could this trigger a reaction against the war among the Russian population?
I don’t think Putin will carry out another mobilization, because the one in September 2022 almost ended in disaster. The system was not prepared to take on such a large number of men and lacked instructors, facilities, uniforms, and even weapons. They mobilized some 300,000 men, but that did not mean they overwhelmed the Ukrainians on the front lines. On the contrary, they suffered heavy casualties for very modest results. Furthermore, if they mobilize in the big cities, they will have a problem. Until now, they have drawn poor people and people from the countryside into the army, because people in the cities with well-paid jobs are not going to enlist in a war that was supposed to end in three days and has now lasted four years. For Russians Putin’s war is a meat grinder, not a special military operation.
People living in Moscow do not feel part of this war, although most of them, of course, if you put a microphone in front of them, will say they support the president and the war. However, they are not willing to go to the front to die, so if they are mobilized, many will flee. That is why I do not think the Kremlin will risk a new mobilization.
You lived in Germany and know Western Europe. Are you surprised that many Europeans see this war as something that has nothing to do with them?
Europeans are fortunate to be able to enjoy beautiful cities like Paris or Madrid and a comfortable life. When they see Russian bombings on Kyiv, of course they can feel affected, but many feel it as something that is happening far away, as if it were not happening in Europe, as if this were not the bloodiest war on European soil since 1945. They need to understand that Putin’s war against Ukraine is a war against Europe and that Putin wants to restore the Soviet Union in all its glory, when its border was in East Berlin. You only have to watch Russian television, where they proclaim that once Ukraine is defeated, they will advance unstoppably on Western Europe because the enemy is the West and the arch-enemy is NATO. Europeans should not be fooled about this. Ukrainians are bravely defending the front line, but they need support, and Europeans must support them because this is also their war.
