Ilya Barabanov and Anastasia Lotareva
BBC News Russian
BBC
Sergei and Tatyana Voronkov were long disillusioned with modern Russia when they decided to move to Ukraine
Shortly after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Sergei and Tatyana Voronkov decided to leave Russia.
The couple, who had long been critical of Vladimir Putin, had criticized Russia’s actions against friends and acquaintances. In response, they were told that if they didn’t like it, they could leave.
Therefore, both Russian citizens decided to move to Ukraine, where Tatiana was born.
In 2019, they eventually settled in Noboliuvimibuka, a village of about 300 people in the southeastern Zaporidia region.
The couple began raising livestock with four dogs, but 55-year-old Sergei also found a job as a land surveyor. His expertise in the Soviet army.
They wanted a quiet life. However, when Moscow began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the peace of their new life was shattered by the first Russian rockets flying through their homes.
“I heard you tling something, flying something, or letting it out,” recalls Tatiana, 52.
“The rocket was flying right above the house.
“I went to the internet and saw what happened and they wrote that Kiev had already been bombed.”
The couple soon found themselves in the occupied territory and decided to become a Ukrainian informant.
He then took detention, interrogation, escape to Europe, and a letter of gratitude from the Ukrainian army.
Family Archives
Sergei and Tatyana of Moscow before they lived in Ukraine
It was the first time Tatyana decided to act when the Russian convoy passed the house.
She ran through and sent a message to an acquaintance in Kiev, whom she believed would be contacted by Ukrainian security services.
The contact sent her a link to a chatbot on the messaging app Telegram.
The couple was then asked to provide the location and details of the Russian electronic warfare system they saw, and especially the military hardware of the missile systems and tanks.
This location will help target Ukrainian forces and destroy the Russian troops in the area along with drones and artillery.
“We didn’t consider it to be treason,” says Tatiana, who argued that the information she gave along with Sergei does not lead to strikes against civilians or civil infrastructure.
“No one attacked Russia. This was a battle against evil.”
For two years, Sergei collects coordinates, and Tatyana sends them from the mobile phone – then removes all traces of the message – by the village’s internet access, it was possible to do so.
However, this all came to an end when Sergei was detained by an armed man in April 2024 while he was shopping for gardening seeds at Tokumak’s regional centre.
Anadoll Agency via Getty Images
Russian fleets moving towards the Donbas region in February 2022
You will be interrogated in the pit
Sergei says he was taken to an abandoned house and placed in a cold cellar about two metres wide and three metres deep.
The next day he was asked whether he had given details of his Russian status to the Ukrainians. Sergei says that during interrogation the bag was placed on his head and threatened by violence.
After initially denying his involvement, Sergei confessed on the fourth day of his captivity, fearing that if he was exposed to violence, he might have accidentally involved others.
While all this was happening, Tatiana was desperately searching for information about his whereabouts.
She traveled through the area and called the hospital and Morgue, but the couple’s son, who still lived near Moscow, contacted various authorities there.
Ten days after Sergei’s arrest, security forces searched the Boronkov’s home and excavated $4,400 hidden by a couple in the garden.
Shortly afterwards, Tatiana was told her husband was “sitting in the basement” and was with the FSB, a Russian security service.
A few weeks later, after 37 days of confinement, Sergei was made to confess to supporting Ukraine on camera by those who introduced him as the FSB.
But to his surprise, he was released two days later, but almost all of 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. There is no transparency in the investigation and judicial process and in many cases there is no explanation as to why a person is detained or released.
Family Archives
Sergei and his pet at his home in Noboli Ubi Mibuka
A few weeks after Sergei’s release, the couple believes they are under surveillance, and the car constantly drives to their home, with strangers asking them if they are selling anything.
Believing they would never be left alone, the couple began planning a way to leave.
After consulting with human rights activists, Sergei and Tatiana decide to travel to Lithuania. However, to do so, he had to first return to Russia to get a new passport to Sergei.
Their neighbors of Novolyubymivka helped by purchasing livestock and appliances from them. The couple even managed to find a new home for their dogs. Sergei says that was his biggest concern.
Escape with a rubber ring
The couple left by car.
Fearing that they would be pulled and quized by the Russian army, they formulated a cover story about going to the beach to get fresh air for Tatiana, who is suffering from asthma. They even brought straw hats and rubber rings to make the story more convincing.
But in the end they didn’t stop.
The couple was initially denied entry to Russia, but were able to enter after Sergei proved proof that he applied for a new passport.
After obtaining his passport, after a blocked attempt to leave Russia via Belarus, Sergei purchased a fake passport through Telegram.
The couple then traveled to Belarus by bus and was able to cross the border using Sergei’s forged documents. From there they went to Lithuania, a member of the European Union and a close ally of Ukraine, but Sergei was detained to hold forged documents.
He was later found guilty in a Lithuanian court of using a fake passport.
Anadoll Agency via Getty Images
Sergei managed to enter Lithuania, a member of the EU using a fake passport, but was later charged by Lithuanian authorities.
The couple currently lives in a shelter for asylum seekers and hopes to settle in Lithuania.
The Ukrainian military sent a letter of thanks to them in response to the requests of previous handlers in Kiev to support their asylum application. The BBC saw a copy of the letter.
The BBC has also looked at documents from both the official bodies of Russia and Ukraine to see what happened to Voronkov. They are not replicating them to protect the identities of the parties involved.
The actions of Voronkovs caused a deep rift in the family.
Their sons, who remained in Russia, stopped talking to their parents after learning what they did. Sergei’s 87-year-old mother still lives in Russia and supports the war and President Putin.
But nonetheless, the couple has declared that they will never return to Russia.
“Only if we start to show humanity,” says Sergei.
“At the moment, I can’t see any human beings there.”
