The name of the beautiful young woman in this photo, taken a month ago in Odessa, is Katya, and she is the mother of a wonderful young man, Timofey Anufriev, a Russian passport holder who went to war to defend Ukraine. Today we received news that he has been killed. You can learn more about him in the film to which I’ve linked in the comments. And try to think hard about [the difference between mere] words and real actions… May the memory of the heroes live forever!
Source: Vitaliy Manski (Facebook), 6 January 2026. Translated by the Russian Reader
Until recently, 21-year-old Timofey Anufriev (son of the renowned artist Sergei Anufriev) was an ordinary university student in Petersburg. For over a year, though, he has been fighting for Ukraine in the ranks of RVC (Russian Volunteer Corps). Our film crew met with him in Kiev. Timofey talks about why he made this decision and about war and death in this report by The Insider.
Source: The Insider (YouTube), 20 March 2025. Annotation translated by the Russian Reader. There is an egregiously machine-translated and machine-dubbed version of this same film which can be viewed here. |||| TRR
[The] 22-year-old Russian-Ukrainian fighter Timofey ‘Aeneas‘ Anufriev was kіlled in action while defending his second homeland.
“Timofey participated in many of the Corps‘ operations: assaults, cleanups, and capturing prisoners. He lived and dіеd like a true knight and poet, in a blaze of fiery glory! <…> Forever in the RVC, forever in the ranks!” the Corps wrote on its Telegram channel.
Anufriev served as a stormtrooper and had the call sign ‘Enei’ [Aeneas]. He was awarded the medal ‘For Assistance to Military Intelligence of Ukraine.’
“The son of a well-known conceptual artist [Sergei Anufriev], born in Moscow and raised in Odesa, Enei regarded both Ukraine and Russia as countries close to him. Highly intelligent and well-educated, open and kind, he sought to contribute to the Corps not only in combat but also beyond the battlefield.
From an early age, Enei was familiar with the cultural circles of two capitals. Unlike the detached, insular segment of the artistic elite that exists removed from reality, he was deeply concerned about the fate of his people.
The outbreak of the war coincided with his first year at university in Saint Petersburg, where he studied philosophy and planned to become a public intellectual. He was disturbed by the way many around him in Russia pretended that nothing was happening. As a result, he decided first to leave the country and later to join the Russian Volunteer Corps.
“There is always a choice,” Enei believed—and he made one guided by his sense of honor. Throughout his combat service, he served as an assault infantryman, one of the most dangerous roles in war.
He took part in numerous operations, including assaults, clearing operations, and the capture of enemy personnel. He lived—and died—in accordance with his convictions.” wrote RVC on its nocturnal post.
Source: ukrainciaga.international (Instagram), 6 January 2025
The son of a famous conceptual artist, he was born in Moscow and grew up in Odessa. Aeneas considered Ukraine and Russia to be his home countries. An exceptionally intelligent and educated, open and kind person, he sought to benefit the Corps not only in battle, but also beyond it.
From childhood, Aeneas was familiar with the cultural bohemian scene of the two capitals, but he was not part of the abstract and “airy” artistic elite that exists detached from reality. On the contrary, he was deeply concerned about the fate of his people.
The war began during his first year at university in St. Petersburg, where he studied philosophy and planned to become a public philosopher. He was disgusted by the fact that many of his peers in the Russian Federation pretended that nothing was happening. Therefore, he decided to first leave Russia and then join the Russian Volunteer Corps.
“There is always a choice,” Eney believed, and he made a choice dictated by honor. He spent his entire military career as an assault soldier — the most dangerous job in the war.
He participated in many operations of the Corps: he stormed, cleared, and took prisoners. He lived and died like a true knight and poet, in the rays of fiery glory!
He was awarded the medal “For Assistance to Military Intelligence of Ukraine.”
Timofey “Aeneas” Anufriev
Forever in the RVC!
Forever in the ranks!
Source: Russian Volunteer Corps Eng (Telegram), 6 January 2026
I’m sorry the kid is dead, but if you look up the Russian Volunteer Corps on Wikpedia as a primer, under “ideology” in the infobox are “Conservatism (Russian)”, “Ethnic nationalism”, “Anti-communism”, “Anti-liberalism”, Anti-Putinism”. This is not George Orwell’s Trotskyite POUM militia from the Spanish Civil War days, this is an armed neo-Nazi gang paid for by the Ukrainian government, who also relies on neo-Nazi militias (Sich-14, Right Sector, all the versions of Azov) to be the “iron in the glove” with the ZSU and the Ukrainian National Guard (Natsionalna hvardiia Ukrainy). It is an outright tragedy that a state must be reliant on such goon squads, but that is the state of warfare in the former republics of the Soviet Union. For balance it must be said that Russia is also shot-through with neo-Nazis, but their skinheads don’t run political parties like Svoboda, they just do the bidding of Uncle Vova.
You’re putting an argument into my mouth that I definitely didn’t make while also pretending that I’m not providing my readers with more information about the Russian Volunteer Corps, which I in fact did (by linking to the Wikipedia article on them). More seriously, you make it sound as if Ukraine is more “neo-Nazi” than Russia is, which is emphatically not the case, or that Russian skinheads have done less damage in Russia than their Ukrainian counterparts have done in Ukraine, which is also not the case. This is something you’d know too if, for example, you’d been reading this website and its erstwhile companion (Chtodelat News) for the last eighteen years instead of for the last day. The damage done by Russian neo-Nazis, on the streets and in the halls of power, in Russia and in Ukraine, is so much more than that done by Ukrainian neo-Nazis that there is literally nothing to talk about.
I read every word of the piece. If you want to know my sources on what is going on with Ukraine, look up Moss Robeson and Peter Korotaev (“Events in Ukraine”) both of whom are on Substack. The truth is that neo-Nazism in Russia and Ukraine a transnational problem, because many of the leaders of these groups in Ukraine are ex-Russians, but Ukraine in exile from 1946 to 1991 has gifted the world with a network of escaped OUN-B/OUN-M/UPA members who formed groups like the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and the National Captive Nations Committee which kept the flame of Banderism alive after Stepan Bandera’s assassination. These people and their children or grandchildren have retaken their places within post-Soviet Ukraine. Even without a war, things would have gotten interesting inside post-Maidan Ukraine, because the farthest-Right was making waves within the county.
Do you speak Russian and/or Ukrainian, Gary? Have you spent any time in either country? Your arguments sound suspiciously close to those of Putin, that is, Ukraine is infested with neo-Nazis and so we have to de-Nazify it. And where were you twenty years ago or so, when Ukrainian neo-Nazis were definitely terrorizing our Ukrainian leftist and LGBTQ comrades, among others? I was reporting on this at the time, from inside Russia, just as I was reporting on the neo-Nazi terror unleashed on the streets of Petersburg, where it was particularly bad at the time, and where I was living. It doesn’t matter whether you read every word of “the piece.” (What piece?) It matters that you seemingly have no idea what my website is about, or that someone who speaks the language and lived in the midst of this stuff might want to get beyond the silly talking point, threadbare after almost twelve years of Russia’s bloody, senseless war on Ukraine, of blaming everything on Ukrainian neo-Nazis. They should be the least of our worries.