As the Russian couple helped the war Ukraine

Shortly after Sergei and Tatsyana Voronkov annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and Tatsyana Voronkov decided to leave Russia.

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

Thus, the couple, both citizens of Russia, decided to move to Ukraine where Tatiana was born.

In 2019, they eventually settled in the village of Novolyubymivka with about 300 people in the southeastern region of Zaparisha.

The couple received four dogs and started raising the animal, and 55 -year -old Sergei also found a job as a surveyor – his specialism during the Soviet Army.

They hoped for a quiet life. But when Moscow launched its complete invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the world of their new life was defeated by the first Russian missiles that flew over their home.

“I heard something whistle, something flying, and I went out,” Tatiana recalls.

“The rocket flew right above the house.

“I went online to see what happened and they wrote that Kiev was already bombed.”

The couple quickly found themselves in the occupied territory and decided to become informants for Ukraine.

Next was detention, interrogation, escape to Europe – and a letter of thanks from the Ukrainian army.

Tariana decided to act for the first time when the Russian convoy passed her home.

She ran inside and reported on the dating in Kiev, which she believed had contacts in Ukraine.

Contact directed her a link to the Chat on Telegram to exchange messaging, which told her that a person with a unique identifier would be contacting them.

The couple then asked to provide the location and details of the Russian electronic war systems and military equipment they saw, in particular missile systems and tanks.

The places will help the Ukrainian army navigate and destroy the Russian troops in the area of ​​drones and artillery.

“We did not think about it as a betrayal,” says Tatiana, who, together with Sergei, insists that they did not lead to strikes on civilian residents and civilian infrastructure.

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

For two years, Sergei would collect coordinates, and Tatiana passed them from her phone – removing all the traces of messages afterwards – how and when access to the Internet of their village allowed them to do so.

But all this ended when armed men were detained by Sergei in April 2024 when he was shopping for horticulture at the Tocmak Regional Center.

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

The next day he was questioned whether he handed over the details of Russian positions to the Ukrainians. Sergei says that he had a bag during the interrogation and he was threatened with violence.

Initially refusing to participate, Sergei confessed on the fourth day of his captivity, fearing that if he was violent, he may accidentally foresee others.

While all this happened, Tatiana desperately sought information about his location.

She traveled around the area and called the hospital and morgue, and the couple’s son, who still lived near Moscow, contacted different authorities.

Ten days after the arrest, Syarhei security forces searched the Voronkovs’ house and dug $ 4,400, which were hidden in their garden.

Soon Tatiana said her husband was “sitting in the basement” and was in Russian security services, FSB.

A few weeks later, 37 days later in captivity, Sergei confessed to help Ukraine on the camera who introduced himself to him as FSB.

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

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

However, the BBC realizes that this is not uncommon in some parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia, where investigators and lawsuits do not have transparency, and often does not explain why a person is delayed or released.

A few weeks after Sergei’s release, the husband and wife believe they were under supervision, and cars constantly drove to their home, and strangers ask them if they sell something.

Considering that they would never remain alone, the couple started to plan the way to leave.

After consulting with human rights defenders, Sergei and Tatiana decided to try to go to Lithuania. But for this they needed to return to Russia first to get Sergei a new passport.

Their neighbors in Novolyubymivka helped buy livestock and household appliances. The couple even managed to find a new home for their dogs, which, according to Sergei, was his biggest concern.

The couple went to the car.

Fearing that they could drag and check the Russian troops, they made the cover to get out the beach to get fresh air for Tatiana in which 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.

The couple initially refused to enter Russia, but eventually they were able to enter after Sergei received a certificate in which he had proved that he had applied for a new passport.

After the delay in receiving the passport and the heart attempt to leave Russia through Belarus, Sergei acquired a fake passport through Telegram.

Then the couple were able to travel by bus in Belarus and cross the border using the fake document Sergei. From there, they moved to Lithuania, a member of the European Union and a close ally of Ukraine, although Sergei was detained for possession of counterfeit documents.

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

Now the couple live in a shelter for asylum and hope to settle in Lithuania.

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

The BBC also saw the documents of the official bodies in both Russia and Ukraine, which confirm what happened from Voronki. We do not restore them to protect the identity of the participants.

The actions of the Voronka caused deep breaks in the family.

Their son, who remains in Russia, stopped talking to his parents, learning what they did. Sergei’s mother, who is 87 years old, still lives in Russia and supports war and President Putin.

But despite this, the couple is unwavering that he will never return to Russia.

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

“So far, I see nothing there.”