Germany describes Denis Kapustin as a top neo-Nazi, and his role in the war is a double-edged sword for Kyiv.

Kapustin is indeed dressed in black for his discussion with POLITICO in a downtown Kyiv hotel — though his clothing is free of any neo-Nazi logos or flashes. That’s despite the fact he runs a far-right apparel line of T-shirts and caps emblazoned with white nationalist and xenophobic imagery as well as the Nazi symbol 88 — the eighth letter of the alphabet twice being a not-so-subtle code for “Heil Hitler.”

He has links with American neo-Nazi groups, and in 2021 co-hosted a podcast with Robert Rundo, founder of the Rise Above Movement, which participated in the Charlottesville white supremacist rally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrylo_Budanov

In 2014, he took part in the war in Donbas, where he was wounded several times and reportedly participated in a number of classified special military operations.

According to The New York Times, Budanov was brought to the United States for treatment at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after being wounded in fighting in the Donbas.

Budanov was one of the members of the elite Unit 2245 of the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate trained by CIA.

  •  locke   ( @locke@sopuli.xyz ) 
    14•3 months ago

    That sucks but doesn’t really counter the larger point that Russia should gtfo from Ukraine. Especially when Russia is also using nazi individuals and Russia is fully into nazi-style propaganda, while amusingly at the same time blatantly lying about being anti-nazi.

    Lol @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Kapustin_(militant) – “former football hooligan”. Well, you have to give it to him for employing his natural skillset toward at least some sort of good things.