“All this is just beyond”: how scammers use the name of a hero who died in Donbass to deceive Russians

Lieutenant Colonel Denis Kudrin died at the very beginning of a special military operation on March 7, 2022.

In June, after a series of DNA tests and identification procedures, the officer was buried.

And on September 15, the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, announced that he had been awarded the title of Hero of the Republic posthumously.

At the same time, as RT found out, messages on behalf of the deceased have been published and continue to be posted on the VKontakte social network all this time. 

So, in March, on a page that Kudrin allegedly runs personally, it was reported that he was fighting near Kyiv, and in May that he was participating in the storming of Severodonetsk: “To everyone who hears me, Severodonetsk is ours!!

Today I hoisted the flag of the LPR over the building of the SBU, friends salute" (

).

Since August, the majority of posts have been devoted to the exchange of prisoners of war with direct hints that the author himself is involved in the negotiations and can help Russians whose relatives are in captivity.

For credibility, photos and comments are published on the page from those who allegedly received assistance: “I finally saw my husband Yura, he has been a prisoner in Ukraine since May, there were people who made an exchange of prisoners and released my husband, I am sincerely grateful to the serviceman Denis Kudrin for great help.

Links to these messages are reposted on forums and in public places where relatives of prisoners and missing persons communicate during the SVO.

People are ready to give away their last savings in order to return their loved ones.

But the real Denis Kudrin has never been on social networks, his widow Tatyana tells RT: “This page is fake from beginning to end.

Denis, due to his activities, never registered and did not communicate in any applications.

Neither under his nickname, nor under fictitious ones.

And on March 7 he died.

Account for discredit

Denis Kudrin was born in Koroche, Belgorod Region, studied at a local high school and graduated from the Serpukhov branch of the Peter the Great Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces.

Since 2005, he lived in Irkutsk and served in the Strategic Missile Forces.

In 2014, when a military conflict began to flare up in Ukraine, Kudrin went as a volunteer to the Donbass, where he led a motorized rifle battalion of militia, which became part of the People's Militia of the LPR.

This unit fought heroically in the Chernukhino-Debaltsevo operation, and Denis himself was awarded orders and medals for participating in the battles.

“Denis was a legendary commander.

His name was well-known, and he was shown on federal channels, ”recalls Tatyana.

It was then, according to the woman, that the Ukrainian special services announced a hunt for her husband and relatives: “There were threats towards the family, parents,” and a fake account appeared on VKontakte, which was used to discredit Denis and the LPR authorities.

As the widow explains, in 2014-2015, attackers, taking advantage of the fact that there is often no connection at the front, wrote messages on behalf of the husband to his relatives and friends and begged for photos to give credibility to the fake profile.

“My husband later said that he was horrified when this page appeared: “I don’t have these photos, but they do,” says Kudrina.

- It turned out that they wrote to their nephew and many other relatives and acquaintances who could have personal photos with Denis.

Those, naturally, thinking that they were communicating with her husband, who is on the front line, sent photos.

“There, the whole campaign was tied to this page, a negative image was created.

There were articles that he was driving some cars and doing other illegal things,” the woman continues.

In 2017, according to her, her husband completed his volunteer mission in the Donbass.

However, the SBU did not leave him alone.

Denis continued to receive threats, and posts on his behalf periodically appeared on the fake page.

Moreover, as Tatyana says, the husband repeatedly tried to get this fake page removed and wrote complaints.

“The account was blocked, and then after a while it started working again.

Probably, the people behind it have the resource and the ability to restore this page, ”Kudrina notes.

“We called them to conscience”

In February of this year, when the special operation began, Denis Kudrin again went to the Donbass.

“I was seven months pregnant, but he could not stay away.

I thought that I should be there with my guys.

And on March 7, Denis went missing, ”recalls Tatyana. 

For three months, Kudrin's relatives hoped that he was alive and that he managed to escape from the encirclement.

“But then it became clear that he was dead,” the woman continues.

- There were several DNA tests, and I myself participated in his identification.

And when, after the funeral, I found out that on behalf of Denis they were collecting money to rescue people from captivity, I was shocked.

According to her, Kudrin's relatives also tried to reason with those who maintained this page.

“My relatives, my family even wrote to these people, appealed to their conscience and asked them to stop doing this, because the person died and this is all beyond the limit.

And they answered on behalf of Denis: “Are you there, have you all gone crazy?

I'm alive".

And so on.

Like, you first decide who was buried there, ”says the widow.

According to Tatyana, in addition to this main account, the scammers use several more false pages, which are allegedly maintained on behalf of Denis's friends.

“When someone begins to doubt or write that the husband is dead, these“ comrades ”begin to convince that he is actually alive,” explains Tatyana.

- One of these dummy women lured from Denis's sister a photo from his funeral, which depicted a part of the coffin with a flag.

After that, the scammer blocked her sister.

And the photo was enlarged and put on a fake profile, removing the coffin and all paraphernalia.

That's why the quality is so bad."

RT was able to contact a serviceman whose photo with words of gratitude for "liberation from captivity" was published by scammers on a fake page.

“Yes, this is my photo and I was in the NWO zone this year, but I did not write this review.

It works fake, writes all sorts of nonsense.

The page is fake.

I personally knew Denis Kudrin, and he died in battle.

I saw it, but I was not captured, ”the fighter replied to RT’s request to comment on the situation.

In turn, Tatyana believes that the page is run not by simple swindlers, but by people directly connected with the Ukrainian special services, since initially the project with the creation of a fake page was clearly supervised by the SBU. 

“This page is disorienting even for those people who know about the death of Denis.

What can we say about those victims who write to these scammers, hoping for the best, says Tatyana.

- One woman wrote to them that her son was on the list of the dead, and they convinced her that he was in captivity.

They said: "Do not believe the lists of the dead, we will get it to you."

These scammers are ready to catch anyone who could somehow be of some material use to them.”

Now Kudrina is preparing a statement to law enforcement agencies with a request to look into the situation and block the fake account once and for all.