How Russia is trying to turn desperate Ukrainians into traitors

Svetlana says she never thought about betraying her country, “not even for a second.”

“My husband would never forgive me,” she says as we meet in her apartment near Kiev.

The 42-year-old had been waiting for news of her husband Dima, a military medic captured by Russia, for more than two years when she suddenly received a phone call.

The voice at the end of the phone told her that if she committed treason against Ukraine, Dima might be entitled to better treatment in prison or even early release.

“I got a call from a Ukrainian number. I picked up and the person introduced himself as Dmitry,” explains Svetlana. He spoke with a Russian accent.

“He said, ‘You can either burn down a military service, set fire to a military machine, or sabotage an electrical box on the Ukrainian railways.’

There was another option: to reveal the locations of nearby air defense units, vital military assets that keep Ukraine’s skies safe from Russian drones and missiles.

As Dmitry lays out his proposal, Svitlana says she remembers the instructions Ukrainian authorities have given all families in case they are sought by Russian agents: buy as much time as possible, record and photograph everything, and report back.

Svetlana reported it and took screenshots of the messages which she showed to the BBC.

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, told her to suspend the Russians while they investigated. So she pretended to agree to bomb a local railroad.

As we sit in her immaculate living room, with intermittent air raid sirens outside, she plays me recordings she made on her phone of two of the voice calls with Dmitri made through the Telegram app. During the conversation, he gives instructions on how to make and place a Molotov cocktail.

“Pour in a liter of lighting fluid and add a little gasoline,” explains Dmitry. “Go to some railway junction. Make sure there are no security cameras. Wear a hat – just in case.”

He also gave Svitlana a lesson on how to put her phone on airplane mode once she was 1-2 km away from her intended target to avoid her signal being intercepted by cell phone towers that could be used by investigators.

“Do you know what a relay box is? Take a picture of it. This must be the purpose of her arson,” explained Dmitri, who asked for proof of completion of the task.

“Write today’s date on a piece of paper and take a picture with that piece of paper.”

In return, Dmitri said he could arrange a phone call with her husband or a package delivered to him.

The SBU later told Svetlana that the man she had been talking to was indeed in Russia and she should cut off contact. Svetlana told Dmitry that she had changed her mind.

“Then the threats started,” says Svetlana, “he said they would kill my husband and I would never see him again.”

For days he called and said: “Your husband is being tortured and it’s your fault!”.

“How worried were you that he might follow through on threats to hurt Dima?” I ask Svetlana. Her eyes water. “My heart ached and I could only pray, ‘God, please don’t let this happen.’

“A part of me said ‘this guy has no connection with the prisoners.’ The other part asks, “What if he really can do it?”

In a statement to the BBC, the SBU said cooperation with Russian agents “will in no way alleviate the prisoner’s plight; on the contrary, it may greatly complicate their chances of being exchanged’.

Authorities are urging all relatives to come forward immediately if they are sought by Russian agents.

Those who do, they say, will be “protected” and treated as victims.

But if relatives agree to carry out sabotage or espionage, the SBU says, “this can be classified as treason. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment.”

Authorities regularly publicize arrests of Ukrainians who allegedly committed arson or disclosed the location of military facilities to Russia.

Pro-Kremlin media are flooded with videos showing Ukrainians setting fire to army vehicles or railway electrical boxes.

Some of the perpetrators do it for money paid by suspected Russian agents, but there are also believed to be attacks carried out by desperate relatives.

Petro Yatsenko of the Ukrainian Army’s General Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War says that about 50 percent of all POW families are contacted by Russian agents.

“They are in a very vulnerable position and some of them are ready for anything,” says Petro, “but we are trying to educate them that this is not going to help (their loved ones in captivity).”

Petro says that an act like setting fire to a military vehicle is not considered a significant material loss for the Ukrainian armed forces:

“But it could destabilize the unity of Ukrainian society, so that’s the main problem.

And, of course, if someone shares the location of, for example, air defense systems, that’s also a big problem for us,” he admits.

Authorities do not release the number of Ukrainians held as prisoners of war, but the number is believed to exceed 8,000.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told the BBC that the number of cases in which relatives agree to work with Russia is small.

The Russian government told the BBC in a statement that accusations that it was using prisoners’ families as leverage were “baseless” and Russia was treating “Ukrainian fighters humanely and in full compliance with the Geneva Convention”.

The statement goes on to accuse Ukraine of using the same methods:

“Ukrainian operators are actively trying to coerce residents of Russia to commit acts of sabotage and arson on Russian territory, targeting critical infrastructure and civilian facilities.”

Svetlana’s husband Dima was released from captivity a little over three months ago.

The couple is now happily back together and enjoying playing with their four-year-old son Vova.

How did Svetlana feel when her husband was finally released?

“There were tears of joy like I’ve never cried before,” she says, beaming. “I felt as if I had wrenched my love from the jaws of death.”

Dima told his wife that the Russians had not threatened to punish him for her refusal to cooperate.

When Svetlana told him about the calls, he was shocked.

“He asked me how I was holding up,” she says with a wink. “Well, as I always say, I’m an officer’s wife.”