Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Christopher Miller published a story last week with elements that seem more well-fitted for a 19th century picaresque novel rather than real life. In his new piece, Miller documented how the 33-year-old Brazilian Rafael Lusvarghi went from a volunteer fighter in the so-called separatist “republics” to a monk-in-training at a Kyiv monastery.

As Miller described, Lusvarghi was arrested in 2016 after the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) tricked him into returning to Ukraine with a “false job offer,” and he was convicted in Ukraine for participating in fighting and recruiting others in January 2017. He was mysteriously released in December 2017, but he was “stuck” in Ukraine because his passport was still with Ukrainian officials. As he awaits his fate, Lusvarghi has become a monk-in-training at Kyiv’s Svyato-Pokrovskyy Holosiivskyy Monastery, though he told Miller that he misses his family back in Brazil.

How did the Brazilian get to where he is, and what open source evidence is out there of his activities that led to his arrest and conviction in Ukraine?

Darling of Russian propaganda

Russian state media was among the Russian or pro-Russian outlets that covered Lusvarghi’s activities with the so-called “republics” of the Donbas, framing him as a noble activist who came to help protect Russians in eastern Ukraine. In a December 2014 report on Russia’s most popular news program, Vesti, Lusvarghi gives an interview as the program portrays him as someone concerned with human rights and corruption.

For example, Vesti showed photographs of Lusvarghi in a military uniform, and showed him during protests in Brazil, where he was pepper sprayed by riot police.