How a Russian couple helped with Ukraine’s military effort

Shortly after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Sergei and Tatiana Voronkov decided that they would leave Russia.

The couple, who has long been critical of Vladimir Putin, has condemned Russia’s actions to friends and acquaintances. In response, they were told that if they did not like it, they could leave.

So the couple, both Russian citizens, decided to move to Ukraine, where Tatiana was born.

In 2019, they eventually settled in novolyubymivka, a village of about 300 people in the southeastern region of attachment.

The couple received four dogs and began raising livestock, while the 55 -year -old Sergei also found a job as a surveyor on Earth – his specialism during his time in the Soviet army.

They hoped for a quiet life. But when Moscow started its full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the peace of their new life was broken by the first Russian missiles flying over their home.

“I heard something whistling, something flies and went out,” remembers 52 -year -old Tatiana.

“The rocket flew just above the house.

“I went to the Internet to see what happened and they wrote that Kiev had already been bombed.”

The couple quickly found themselves in an occupied territory and decided to become informants about Ukraine.

Following was the detention, interrogation, escape in Europe – and thanks from the Ukrainian army.

It was when the Russian convoy went home for the first time that Tatiana decided to act.

She was going inside and sending an acquaintance in Kiev, whom she believed had contacts in Ukraine for security.

Her contact sent a link to the Telegram Message Chatbot, who told her he would contact a person with a unique identifier.

The couple was then asked to provide the location and details of the Russian electronic war and military hardware systems they saw, especially rocket systems and reservoirs.

Location will help the Ukrainian army to target and destroy Russian troops in the area with drones and artillery.

“We didn’t think about it as a betrayal,” says Tatiana, who, along with Sergei, insists on the information they gave, did not lead to strikes on civilian or civil infrastructure.

“No one attacked Russia. It was a struggle against evil.”

For two years, Sergei will collect coordinates and Tatiana will transmit them from her phone – removing all traces of the messages afterwards – as well as when accessing the internet of the village allowed them to do so.

But all this ended when Sergei was detained in April 2024 by armed men while he was shopping for gardening seeds at the Tokmak Regional Center.

Sergei says he was taken to an abandoned house and put in a cold basement pit – about two meters and three meters deep – where he slept in a squat position.

The next day, he was questioned whether he had delivered details about the Russian positions of the Ukrainians. Sergei says a bag is held above his head and he was threatened with violence.

After initially denying his participation, Sergei admitted on the fourth day of his captivity, fearing that if he was subjected to violence, he could accidentally interfere with others.

As all this was happening, Tatiana was desperately looking for information about her location.

She toured the area and called the hospitals and morgues while the couple’s son, who was still living near Moscow, contacted various authorities there.

Ten days after Sergei’s arrest, security forces searched Voronkov’s home and dug $ 4,400, which were hidden by the couple in their garden.

Shortly afterwards, Tatiana was told that her husband was “sitting in a basement” and with Russia for security, FSB.

Weeks later, after 37 days in captivity, Sergei was made to admit that he was helping Ukraine on a camera from people who presented themselves as FSB.

But to his surprise, he was released two days later, although almost all his documents, including his passport, were confiscated.

To this day, Sergei and Tatiana do not understand why he was released.

However, the BBC understands that this is not uncommon in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia, where investigators and court processes have no transparency and often do not explain why a person is detained or released.

During the weeks after the release of Sergei, the couple believes they were kept under surveillance, with cars constantly getting home and strangers asking them if they sell something.

Believing that they would never be alone, the couple began to think about a way to leave.

After consulting human rights activists, Sergei and Tatiana decided to try to travel to Lithuania. But in order to do this, they had to return to Russia first to get a new Sergei passport.

Their neighbors at novolyubymivka have helped to buy livestock and household appliances from them. The couple even managed to find a new home for their dogs, which Sergei says is his greatest anxiety.

The couple left in their car.

Fearing that they can be drawn and questioned by Russian powers, they have come up with a history of the beach cover to get fresh air for Tatiana, who has asthma. They even brought a straw hat and a rubber ring to make the story more convincing.

But in the end, they were not stopped.

Initially, the couple was denied entry into Russia, but in the end they managed to enter after Sergei received a certificate proving that he had applied for a new passport.

After delaying his passport and thwarted attempt to leave Russia through Belarus, Sergei bought a fake passport via Telegram.

The couple then managed to travel by bus to Belarus and cross the border, using a Sergei’s forged document. From there, they passed to Lithuania, a member of the European Union and a close ally of Ukraine, although Sergei was detained for holding forged documents.

He was later found guilty of using a fake passport from a Lithuanian court.

The couple now lives in a shelter shelter and hopes to settle in Lithuania.

The Ukrainian army sent them a letter of gratitude – at the request of their former leader in Kiev – to support their asylum application. BBC saw a copy of the letter.

The BBC has also seen documents from official bodies in both Russia and Ukraine, who confirm what happened to Voronky. We do not reproduce them to protect the identity of the participants.

Voronsov’s actions have caused deep breaks in the family.

Their son, who stays in Russia, stopped talking to his parents after learning what they had done. Sergei’s mother, who is 87, still lives in Russia and supports the war and President Putin.

However, the couple is adamant that they will never return to Russia.

“Only if it starts to show some humanity,” Sergei says.

“So far I don’t see anything human there.”