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Hrystyna Garkavenko was only 19 years old when she agreed to help a Russian agent, transmitting information about the movements of the Ukrainian army. Today she is serving a 15-year prison sentence for treason. Her case sheds light on how Russia recruits collaborators inside Ukraine and on the motives \u2013 from money to emotional manipulation \u2013 that drive some to betray their country<\/p>\n
Shortly after noon on July 19, 2024, Hrystyna Garkavenko, the 19-year-old daughter of a priest, arrived at his church in Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine. Although she was a devout believer, she had not gone there to pray.<\/p>\n
Knowing the building well because of her father’s role, the young woman went up to the second floor and entered one of the rooms. There, in a curtained window, he placed a mobile phone as a live-streaming camera, pointing from a road used by Ukrainian troops and military vehicles moving to and from the front lines further east. The footage was transmitted directly to Russian intelligence.<\/p>\n
According to Ukrainian prosecutors, this was not the only task Garkavenko performed for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). During that year, she communicated with an FSB agent, giving him information about the location of Ukrainian military personnel and equipment in Pokrovsk, a strategic center.<\/p>\n
“I just wanted to talk more with this person. And just because I wanted to continue the conversation with him, I agreed to help him,” Garkavenko told CNN in a rare phone interview from prison, where he is serving a 15-year sentence for treason.<\/p>\n
She declined to tell CNN if she had romantic feelings for the agent. However, Pavlo Uhrovetsky, head of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, stated that “in addition to her active pro-Russian stance, the young woman had developed more than a friendly relationship with that person”.<\/p>\n
Garkavenko is one of thousands of Ukrainians believed to have been recruited by the FSB and other Russian intelligence agencies to spy against their country. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), investigators have opened more than 3,800 treason investigations since the start of the full Russian occupation in February 2022, while more than 1,200 people have been found guilty and sentenced. On average, those convicted face 12 to 13 years in prison, although some receive life sentences.<\/p>\n
CNN has sought comment from the FSB, but they have not responded.<\/p>\n
Andrii Yakovliev, a defense attorney and expert on international humanitarian and criminal law at the Ukrainian organization Media Initiative for Human Rights, told CNN that Ukraine provides conditions for a fair trial and that, in general, the country’s courts respect the trial process. legal order. He added that prosecutors usually bring cases to court only when they have sufficient evidence and “will not call white and black” to secure a conviction.<\/p>\n
“Giving information to Russian intelligence is the most common form of treason in wartime,” said Ivan Kisilevych, head of a department in the Prosecutor General’s Office.<\/p>\n
According to the SBU, the tasks performed on behalf of the FSB are very diverse and close geographic proximity to the war front does not matter.<\/p>\n
“In frontline areas, we more often detain agents who collect and pass on information about the movements or positions of the Ukrainian military,” the SBU said in a statement. “In western and central Ukraine, Russian agents most often collect and leak information on military facilities, critical infrastructure, and attempt sabotage near power plants, police buildings and railway lines.”<\/p>\n
Defense Ministry adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov warned this week that Russian agents are trying to recruit Ukrainians to record Starlink internet satellite equipment, which could then be used by the Russian military, as unauthorized Russian systems are blocked. According to him, the Russians offer $300 to Ukrainians who agree to do so.<\/p>\n
The profile of Ukrainians recruited by Russia is varied. While some are ideologically motivated, that group is shrinking, intelligence officials say. For most, the main motive is money.<\/p>\n
According to the SBU, Russian intelligence operatives mainly recruit people in financial difficulties, such as the unemployed, or individuals with various addictions – to drugs, alcohol or gambling.<\/p>\n
“It is important to understand that it is not about thousands of dollars,” Kisilevych said. “For most, it’s a few hundred dollars or other material benefits… It’s easy money for traitors. They just take the money to their bank cards, without thinking about where it comes from and who they serve”.<\/p>\n
Andriy, an intelligence officer at the SBU, told CNN that Telegram channels are currently one of the most common means of recruitment. CNN is not releasing his last name because of the nature of the work.<\/p>\n
“The Russians post notices offering quick and easy money. Then they start giving them tasks gradually. At first, they are very simple – buy a coffee, take a photo of the receipt in a cafe. For this, the money is transferred to the bank card and the recruitment process starts gradually,” he explained. “Then more sensitive tasks appear – placing cameras near railways, photographing military facilities, and so on”.<\/p>\n
If at some point the person refuses to cooperate, the recruiters use blackmail, Andriy said, threatening to hand over the correspondence to the SBU. “At that point, people have no way out,” he added.<\/p>\n
Garkavenko says her contact started as a casual acquaintance on Telegram. “At first it was just a normal introduction, an ordinary conversation. Then he introduced himself as an agent of the Russian Federation and suggested cooperation,” she said from the penal colony for women convicted of crimes against national security and treason.<\/p>\n
She confessed that at one point she thought about withdrawing. “I had my doubts, I wanted to stop at one point, and I told her this several times. But they told me that everything would be fine, that they would protect me and that nothing bad would happen. I believed them.” premises, which include ordinary people up to military personnel.<\/p>\n
According to them, the suspected betrayals that have been discovered involve a wide range of individuals. Among those found guilty are: a 50-year-old factory mechanic in Kramatorsk, recruited by the FSB, who was sending coordinates of Ukrainian personnel and heavy weapons; a 40-year-old former factory worker in Kramatorsk who directed Russian bombing of the region; a 21-year-old resident of Kiev who helped coordinate Russian missile attacks on the capital; and a 49-year-old resident of the Chernivtsi region who worked in a delivery service. Acting under the “guise” of his job as a courier, the agent traveled to the area recording military facilities and critical infrastructure, the SBU said.<\/p>\n
Uhrovetsky, of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, recalls the case he describes as “cynical” of Iryna Landugas, a woman convicted last year of sending information on the positions of Ukrainian forces to her son, who was fighting for the Russian army, and receiving financial compensation in exchange.<\/p>\n
“We heard her talking to her son, after he gave the coordinates of the Ukrainian forces. After that, those places were bombed, and she herself went and checked that there were dead and wounded. She thanked them and was happy, saying: ‘Very well, I love you,'” said Uhrovetsky.<\/p>\n
According to the court decision, in August 2023, while returning from the store, Landuga, which lived in Kurakhivka, Donetsk region, saw Ukrainian soldiers in the house of his son’s godmother and in the barracks of the Military Mine Rescue Unit. She told her son about it, and then the area was bombed, causing at least one death. A 59-year-old civilian woman, who lived in a nearby building, died under the rubble. The son’s godmother was out of town at the time.<\/p>\n
In an audio recording provided by prosecutors to CNN, Landuga is heard saying of the attack: “People died there. A woman died… Everything is fine, everything is fine. They hit the barracks? Very good, I love you. Good job!”<\/p>\n
In October 2025, she received a life sentence, with the court noting the indifference of her to the consequences of her actions.<\/p>\n
Garkavenko received a 15-year sentence in June after pleading guilty and expressing remorse. Uhrovetsky said she made the admission “because she wants to be exchanged.”<\/p>\n
In her interview with CNN, Garkavenko said that although she has never been to Russia, she has relatives there and wants to live with them.<\/p>\n
Kisilevych pointed out that some Ukrainians are promised that if things go wrong, they will be exchanged with Ukrainian citizens held as prisoners of war by Russia. For some of those arrested, going to Russia is the only acceptable option, he said. “But I have serious doubts that they will be better off there. I doubt they will arrive there as heroes.”<\/p>\n
While awaiting a possible exchange, Garkavenko’s father – a priest – remains in Ukraine. She said he was shocked when he discovered her actions, but did not abandon her. “He supports me and says that everything will be fine. He accepted my decision to exchange.”<\/p>\n
Andriy, the counterintelligence officer at the SBU, said that the Russian intelligence service does not really value remote recruits. \u201cThey just exploit them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that there will always be people trying to steal secrets \u2013 and for intelligence operatives, the search for traitors never stops. “It’s a detailed job, involving a detailed study of the collaborator’s life. Sometimes it gets to the point where you know their life so well, you become a part of it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Garkavenko said he made a conscious choice to help Russia and now regrets what he did. “I punished my loved ones and, to some extent, ruined my life”.<\/p>\n
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