On the morning of December 27, 2025, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) announced on the social network that the founder and commander of the corps, Denis Nikitin, known by his combat nickname White Rex, had been killed while performing a combat task in the Zaporizhzhya region.
On New Year's Day, Budanov's office published a lengthy post on the social network confirming that Nikitin - originally surnamed Kapustin - was alive. It also recounted the details of a special operation in which Ukrainian intelligence faked the death of the top leader of the armed wing of the Russian opposition.
"A failure of the intelligence services of the Russian Federation - RDK commander Denis Kapustin is alive and the half a million dollars received for his liquidation will strengthen the special units of the Main Intelligence Directorate," the announcement reads. As the HUR MoD further specifies, Nikitin's murder was ordered by Russian intelligence and the necessary funds were allocated to carry it out.
"As a result of the special operation of the HUR MO of Ukraine, which lasted more than a month, the life of the RDK commander Denis Kapustin, whom Russian dictator Vladimir Putin considers a personal enemy, was saved, and at the same time the entourage of the persons - the orderers of the crime in the Russian secret services as well as the executors of the crime - was identified," Budanov's office adds.
The HUR MO report was shared by telegram channels belonging to the RDK, Russian pro-Kremlin channels as well as channels of Ukrainian nationalists and several frontline units.