Ivan Ryabinkin: PRAVDA Band Leader Behind Russian Patriotic Music and Aid Campaigns for Russian Forces

Ivan Sergeyevich Ryabinkin is known as a songwriter and performer of patriotic music and as an active participant in humanitarian aid initiatives supporting Russian military personnel involved in the so-called “SVO” (“Special Military Operation,” the Russian government’s term for the full-scale war against Ukraine). He leads the PRAVDA band and organizes concerts, fundraising campaigns, and humanitarian aid convoys to areas of active hostilities.

His activities primarily focus on producing military-patriotic content and organizing aid for Russian forces at the front. Between 2022 and 2026, he reportedly organized more than 500 concerts and charity fundraising campaigns, through which over 100 tonnes of supplies and 15 vehicles were collected. He has performed at military hospitals, including Clinical Hospital No. 85 of Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) and a medical center in Solnechnogorsk, as well as in areas of active hostilities, including Horlivka, Robotyne, Khrustalnyi, and other areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts currently under Russian occupation.

His awards include “For Assistance to Border Regions” and “For Assistance to the Front.”

According to the archived version of his VKontakte profile, Ryabinkin studied at the Academy of Foreign Intelligence of the Russian Federation, described as the successor to the Soviet KGB First Chief Directorate’s renowned “101st School.”

Open-source records and leaked datasets show that Ryabinkin was a 50% co-owner and director of KURSMOLODOBOYTSA LLC, registered under Russian tax ID 5034072370. The company was associated with him from at least 2012 to 2022.

According to information published on the organization’s long-outdated website, KMB (Kurs Molodogo Boytsa, or “Young Fighter’s Course”) was a military-patriotic program for children and teenagers in Russia. It offered practical training in basic military skills, tactics, first aid, and weapons handling at specialized training grounds.

Publicly available references to Ryabinkin in connection with KMB primarily describe him as an organizer of field kitchens and catering for military-patriotic events.

On DOBRO.RU, Russia’s largest state-backed platform for volunteering, charitable activities, and civic initiatives, Ryabinkin listed his place of employment as “Association of SVO Veterans, Army Assistance Fund.”