Denis Kapustin, at right in black, the leader of an anti-Putin group of ethnic Russians who has been identified as a neo-Nazi by the Anti-Defamation League, is interviewed and photographed by reporters in northeastern Ukraine, May 24, 2023.
Kapustin, who has long used the alias Denis Nikitin but typically goes by his military call sign, White Rex, is a Russian citizen who moved to Germany in the early 2000s. He associated with a group of violent soccer fans and later became, “one of the most influential activists” in a neo-Nazi splinter group in the MMA scene, officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have said.
In reality, far-right groups in Ukraine are a small minority, and Ukraine has denied any involvement in the Russian Volunteer Corps or any role in fighting on the Russian side of the border. But Kapustin said that his group “definitely got a lot of encouragement” from Ukrainian authorities. The Russian Volunteer Corps also claimed credit for two incidents in the Russian border region of Bryansk in March and April.
Andriy Chernyak, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, defended Kyiv’s willingness to allow the group to fight on its behalf. “They are largely a far-right group of neo-Nazi exiles who are undertaking these incursions into Russian-held territory who seem far more concerned about making social media content than anything else,” Colborne said.