Military groups made headlines this week by crossing the Ukrainian-Russian border and fighting near Belgorod. Media representatives now had the opportunity to speak to the members.
They pose together in front of journalists in north-eastern Ukraine – a place where the Ukrainian army also trains and which must not be named. The members of the so-called “Legion Freedom for Russia” and the so-called “Russian Volunteer Corps”.
They are standing around a Soviet-type armored vehicle that they claim has been captured by Russian border troops. In full gear with assault rifles, some masked, they hold their respective flags aloft.
Russian neo-Nazi involved in Belgorod action
Only two of the men are allowed to speak – and Denis Kapustin, the notorious head of the “Russian Volunteer Corps” and a neo-Nazi with a Russian passport who is considered to be influential in the right-wing extremist scene, is the first to do so. Years ago he founded the neo-Nazi fashion label “White Rex”, which, according to “Spiegel” and the research association WDR, NDR and “SZ” professionalized the neo-Nazi martial arts scene throughout Europe.
The logo is now also emblazoned on Kapustin’s black peaked cap. Right-wing extremism expert Robert Claus wrote on Twitter this week that the man is a key figure in militant neo-Nazism at the European level. At the press event in north-eastern Ukraine, Kapustin said ARD: “I’m quite traditional, right-wing conservative. I don’t understand why that’s an insult in the world today.”
Born in Moscow, he moved to Germany in the early 2000s. He later went back to Russia and has been living in Ukraine for several years. Self-confident, almost imperious, he directs the media that surround him.
Two dead, ten wounded, one Russian prisoner
According to Kapustin, just crossing the border to Russia into the Belgorod region is a success. They were there for 24 hours. There were two dead and ten wounded, according to his balance sheet, and not 70, as the Russian propaganda claims.
The “Russian Volunteer Corps” was founded in August 2022. However, some members have been active in the Donbas against Putin’s Russia since the beginning of the war in 2014. The Ukrainian army would support them, Kapustin claims, with fuel, medicine, information, food and even tending to the wounded. “What about guns?” asks one of the journalists.
“The weapons are our weapons if we get them on Ukrainian soil. Are they Ukrainian weapons? Or our weapons? Hard to say,” he replies.
Everything within Ukraine’s state borders is coordinated with the Ukrainian military. “Otherwise the Russians would have run through Ukraine with machine guns,” said Kapustin. “Everything we do across the border, we decide for ourselves,” he continues.
Liberation of Russia as a long-term goal
That’s enough, the organizers will decide. Now you should talk to Caesar, the deputy commander of the so-called “Legion Freedom for Russia”. Little is known about this group. It is said to consist of nationalists and former Russian army personnel.
Little is publicly known about Maximilian Andronnikov, also known as Caesar. According to independent Russian media, he should at least have a nationalist past. And he wants to overthrow the Putin system.
Andronnikov calls the Russian attack on Ukraine a tragedy. Wearing camouflage uniform and a ponytail, he describes his group as follows: “We are liberators, peace-loving concerned Russian citizens and liberators of our homeland. We defend Ukraine and have been fighting in and around Bakhmut for several months. Above all, we want Ukraine to be protected from our country’s aggression to protect.”
Andronnikov said that when all areas were liberated, serious efforts would be made to liberate Russia. The information remains vague and many questions remain unanswered at the end. The mission is ongoing and further actions are planned – that’s what both Andronnikov and Kapustin say.
Kyiv denies any involvement
No Ukrainian soldiers were involved in the action in the Belgorod region, official Kiev said in unison. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak spoke of an “armed guerrilla movement” with which one has nothing to do. They are Russian citizens, and tanks are sold in every Russian military shop.
He was alluding to a 2014 allegation by the Russian President and the illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. At the time, Putin said that the soldiers in Crimea were local militias – and that Russian uniforms could be bought in any military shop.