A gaggle of fighters aligned with Ukraine, who had participated earlier this week in essentially the most intense preventing inside Russia’s borders for the reason that invasion, gathered the international and native press in an undisclosed location on Wednesday to have a good time, to taunt the Kremlin and to indicate off what they referred to as “military trophies” from their incursion into their homeland: Russia.

Their chief, Denis Kapustin, was proud that his pressure of anti-Putin Russians at one level managed, he stated, 42 sq. kilometers, or 16 sq. miles, of Russian territory.

“I want to prove that it’s possible to fight against a tyrant,” he stated. “That Putin’s power is not unlimited, that the security services can beat, control and torture the unarmed. But as soon as they meet a full armed resistance, they flee.”

It was the rhetoric of a dissident freedom fighter, however there was a discordant observe that emerged as clearly because the neo-Nazi Black Sun patch on the uniform of one of many troopers: Mr. Kapustin and outstanding members of the armed group he leads, the Russian Volunteer Corps, overtly espouse far-right views. In truth, German officers and humanitarian teams, including the Anti-Defamation League, have recognized Mr. Kapustin as a neo-Nazi.

Mr. Kapustin, who has lengthy used the alias Denis Nikitin however usually goes by his military call sign, White Rex, is a Russian citizen who moved to Germany within the early 2000s. He related to a gaggle of violent soccer followers and later turned, “one of the most influential activists” in a neo-Nazi splinter group in the mixed-martial-arts scene, officers within the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have stated.

Mr. Kapustin has reportedly been banned from getting into Europe’s visa-free, 27-country Schengen zone, however he has stated solely that Germany canceled his residency allow.

The proven fact that the group has garnered consideration for its operation and revived protection of the group’s ties to neo-Nazis is a clumsy growth for Ukraine’s authorities, significantly since President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has justified his invasion on the false declare of preventing neo-Nazis and made it a daily theme of Kremlin propaganda.

Most of the anti-Russian teams harbor long-term political ambitions to return dwelling and overthrow the Russian and Belarusian governments.

“The Russian Volunteer Corps marches in and destroys the current government — that’s the only way,” Mr. Kapustin said earlier this year. “You cannot persuade a tyrant to leave, and any other force would be seen as invaders.”

In actuality, far proper teams in Ukraine are a small minority, and Ukraine has denied any involvement within the Russian Volunteer Corps or any function in preventing on the Russian aspect of the border. But Mr. Kapustin stated that his group “definitely got a lot of encouragement” from the Ukrainian authorities.

Some on the far proper in Russia way back soured on Mr. Putin, significantly for his jailing of so many nationalists, but additionally for his insurance policies on immigration and for what they understand as granting an excessive amount of energy to minorities like ethnic Chechens. Since the 2014 Maidan revolution and the onset of conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists within the jap Donbas area, lots of them have made a house in Ukraine and are actually preventing on the aspect of their adopted nation.

The Russian Volunteer Corps, additionally identified by its Russian initials R.D.Okay., was one among two teams of anti-Russian fighters that performed a cross-border assault within the Belgorod area of southern Russia on Monday, participating enemy troops over two days of skirmishing.

The intention of the incursions, the teams say, was to pressure Moscow to redeploy troopers from occupied areas of Ukraine to defend its borders, stretching its defenses forward of a deliberate Ukrainian counteroffensive, a purpose which aligns with the broader goals of Ukraine’s army.

The Russian Volunteer Corps additionally claimed credit score for 2 incidents within the Russian border area of Bryansk in March and April.

The second group was the Free Russia Legion, which operates below the umbrella of Ukraine’s International Legion, a pressure that features American and British volunteers, in addition to Belarusians, Georgians and others. It is overseen by Ukraine’s Armed Forces and commanded by Ukrainian officers.

At the news convention on Wednesday, Mr. Kapustin affirmed that his group was not managed by the Ukrainian Army, however stated that the army had wished the fighters “good luck.” There had been “nothing further than encouragement” from the Ukrainian half, he stated.

“Everything we do, every decision we make, beyond the state border is our own decision what we do. Obviously we can ask our comrades and friends for their assistance in planning,” he continued. “They would say ‘yes, no’ and this is the kind of encouragement, help I was talking about.” That declare couldn’t be independently verified.

Andriy Chernyak, a consultant of Ukraine’s army intelligence service, defended Kyiv’s willingness to permit the group to battle on its behalf.

“Ukraine definitely supports all those who are ready to fight the Putin regime,” he stated, including: “People came to Ukraine and said that they want to help us to fight Putin’s regime, so of course we let them, same as many other people from foreign countries.”

Ukraine has referred to as the incursions an “internal Russian crisis” provided that the members of the group are Russians themselves.

Some analysts dismissed the importance of the R.D.Okay. as a preventing pressure whilst they warn of the hazards they pose. Michael Colborne, a researcher at Bellingcat who experiences on the worldwide far proper, stated he was hesitant even to name the Russian Volunteer Corps a army unit.

“They are largely a far-right group of neo-Nazi exiles who are undertaking these incursions into Russian-held territory who seem far more concerned about making social media content than anything else,” Mr. Colborne stated.

Some different members of the R.D.Okay. photographed throughout the border raid even have publicly embraced neo-Nazi views. One man, Aleksandr Skachkov, was arrested by the Ukrainian Security Services in 2020 for promoting a Russian translation of the white supremacist manifesto of the shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, who killed 51 mosque worshipers in 2019. Mr. Skachkov was launched on bail after spending a month in jail.

Another member, Aleksei Levkin, who filmed a selfie video sporting the R.D.Okay. insignia, is a founding father of a gaggle referred to as Wotanjugend that began in Russia however later moved to Ukraine. Mr. Levkin additionally organizes a “National Socialist Black Metal Festival,” which started in Moscow in 2012 however was held in Kyiv from 2014 till 2019.

Pictures posted on-line by the fighters earlier this week confirmed them posing in entrance of captured Russian tools, with some sporting Nazi-style patches and tools. One patch depicted a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr. Colborne stated the pictures of Mr. Kapustin and his fighters may harm Ukraine’s protection by making allies cautious they could possibly be supporting far-right armed teams.

“I worry that something like this could backfire on Ukraine because these are not ambiguous people,” he stated. “These are not unknown people, and they are not helping Ukraine in any practical sense.”

Mr. Kapustin, who along with talking Russian speaks fluent English and German, advised reporters he didn’t assume being referred to as “far right” was an “accusation.”

“We have never concealed our views,” he stated. “We are a right, conservative, military, semipolitical organization,” he stated.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Andrew E. Kramer and Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.