Vladimir Putin humiliated as Ukrainian spies con Russia out of £370,000

Russia inadvertently paid Ukraine £370,000 following the operation (Image: Getty)

An audacious military operation by Ukraine saw the security services con Russia out of £370,000. In a morale-raising piece of propaganda, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) confirmed the success of an operation designed to fool the Kremlin into believing they had killed a Russian dissident.

Denis Kapustin, one of the most prominent anti-Putin Russians fighting on behalf of Ukraine, had a £370,000 bounty on his head after founding the pro-Ukrainian Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) in 2022. The group has made headlines throughout the war after conducting cross-border incursions into Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions and humiliating Russian authorities.

Russia believed that they had successfully killed Mr Kaputsin in a drone strike on December 27 and, incredibly, paid out the huge reward after news of his death broke.

Military Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budabov announced the successful mission (Image: Getty)

RDK went as far as to confirm the death, posting on Telegram: “We will definitely take revenge, Denis. Your legacy lives on.”

However, all was not as it seems and on New Year’s Day, HUR posted a video showing Mr Kaputsin looking fit and healthy, with Gen Kyrylo Budan greeting him by saying “welcome back to life,” with a wry smile.

He added: “First of all, Mr Denis, congratulations on your return to life. That is always a pleasure. I am glad that the money allocated for your assassination was used to support our struggle.”

HUR confirmed that the operation had seen them claim the bounty, with the money set to be used to fund Ukraine’s war effort as it seeks to defeat Putin’s forces.

The mission is the latest success story for Ukrainian intelligence services who have regularly used deception and double agents to aid their fight with Russia since the outbreak of war.

In one case in November, Ukrainian intelligence exploited Russian agents by accepting FSB-linked sabotage jobs for payment, only to undermine them.

In one case, a Ukrainian double agent took a bomb-making task, passed on a fake device made with flour, leading to the arrest of Russian saboteur when it failed.

Ukraine has acknowledged killing senior Russian officials and is suspected in several other attacks, including the bombing of a Russian general in December after a device exploded under a car in Moscow.

The propaganda victory comes after a Ukrainian drone strike killed 24 people and wounded at least 50 more as they celebrated the new year in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region.

As tensions between the two nations continue to spike despite diplomats hailing productive peace talks, three drones struck a cafe and hotel in the resort town of Khorly on the Black Sea coast overnight into Thursday, according to the region’s Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo.

He said in a statement on Telegram that one of the drones carried an incendiary mixture, sparking a blaze.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the claim of a strike.

The attack was condemned by a number of Russian officials. Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said the strike “strengthened” Russia’s resolve to quickly achieve its goals in its almost four-year invasion of Ukraine.

The strike “once again demonstrates the validity of our initial demands”, Ms Matviyenko said.