Recruitment of Ukrainians as Russian spies

Hrystyna Garkavenko was just 19 when she agreed to help a Russian agent, passing on information about Ukrainian military movements. Today, she is serving a 15-year prison sentence for treason. Her case sheds light on how Russia recruits collaborators inside Ukraine and the motives - from money to emotional manipulation - that drive some to betray their country.

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.

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, she set up a mobile phone as a live-streaming camera, aimed at a road used by Ukrainian troops and military vehicles moving to and from the front lines further east. The footage was transmitted live to Russian intelligence.

According to Ukrainian prosecutors, this was not the only task Garkavenko carried out for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). During that year, she communicated with an FSB agent, providing him with information about the location of Ukrainian military personnel and equipment in Pokrovsk, a strategic hub.

"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.

She declined to tell CNN whether 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."

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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 cases since the start of the full-scale Russian occupation in February 2022, and over 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.

CNN has requested a comment from the FSB, but they have not responded.

Andrii Yakovliev, a defense attorney and international humanitarian and criminal law expert 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 due process. He added that prosecutors typically bring cases to court only when they have sufficient evidence and "will not call black and white" to secure a conviction.

"Providing information to Russian intelligence is the most common form of treason in wartime," said Ivan Kisilevych, head of a department at the Prosecutor General's Office.

According to the SBU, the tasks performed on behalf of the FSB are very diverse and geographical proximity to the war front does not matter.

“In frontline areas, we more often detain agents who collect and transmit information about the movements or positions of the Ukrainian military,” the SBU said in a statement. “In western and central Ukraine, Russian agents more often collect and leak information about military facilities, critical infrastructure, as well as attempt sabotage near power plants, police buildings, and railway lines.”

Defense Ministry adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov warned this week that Russian agents are trying to recruit Ukrainians to register Starlink internet satellite equipment, which could then be used by the Russian military, after unauthorized Russian systems have been blocked. According to him, the Russians are offering $300 to Ukrainians who agree to do so.

Why some Ukrainians agree to spy

The profile of Ukrainians recruited by Russia is diverse. While some are ideologically motivated, this group is shrinking, intelligence officials say. For most, the main motive is money.

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.

"It's important to understand that it's 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 it serves."

Andriy, an intelligence officer at the SBU, told CNN that Telegram channels are currently one of the most common recruitment tools. CNN is not publishing his last name due to the nature of the work.

“Russians post ads 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 a bank card and the recruitment process gradually begins,” he explained. “Then more sensitive tasks appear - setting up cameras near railways, photographing military facilities, and so on.”

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.

Garkavenko says her contact began 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.

She confessed that at one point she had considered backing out. "I had doubts, I wanted to stop at some point, and I told them this several times. But they told me that everything would be okay, that they would protect me, and that nothing bad would happen. I believed them."

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Although she was paid by the FSB for her actions, she told CNN that money was not the main motivation.

“Very well, I love you”

The SBU reports almost weekly new arrests of suspected local collaborators, ranging from ordinary people to military personnel.

According to them, the alleged treasons that have been uncovered include a wide range of individuals. Among those found guilty are: a 50-year-old factory mechanic in Kramatorsk, recruited by the FSB, who sent coordinates of Ukrainian personnel and heavy weapons; a 40-year-old former factory worker in Kramatorsk, who directed Russian bombing in the region; a 21-year-old resident of Kiev, who helped coordinate Russian missile strikes on the capital; and a 49-year-old resident of Chernivtsi region who worked for a delivery service. Operating under the “mask” of his job as a courier, the agent traveled around the area recording military facilities and critical infrastructure, the SBU said.

Uhrovetsky, from 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 return.

"We heard her talking to her son, after she gave him 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 good, I love you,'" Uhrovetsky said.

According to the court ruling, in August 2023, while returning from the store, Landuga, who lived in Kurakhivka, Donetsk region, saw Ukrainian soldiers at her son’s godmother’s house and at the barracks of the Military Mine Rescue Unit. She told her son about this, and then the area was shelled, causing at least one death. A 59-year-old civilian woman, who lived in a nearby building, died under the rubble. Her son’s godmother was out of town at the time.

In an audio recording provided by the prosecution to CNN, Landuga is heard saying of the attack: "People died there. A woman died... Everything is fine, everything is going well. Did they hit the barracks? Very good, I love you. Good job!"

In October 2025, she was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the court noting her indifference to the consequences of her actions.

Waiting for an exchange

Garkavenko received a 15-year sentence in June after pleading guilty and expressing remorse. Uhrovetsky said she made the plea “because she wants to be exchanged.”

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.

Kisilevych noted that some Ukrainians are being promised that if things go badly, they will be exchanged for Ukrainian citizens held as prisoners of war by Russia. For some of the detainees, going to Russia is the only acceptable option, he said. “But I have serious doubts that they will be better off there. I doubt that they will arrive there as heroes.”

While she awaits a possible exchange, Garkavenko's father – a priest – remains in Ukraine. She said he was shocked when he discovered her actions, but he did not abandon her. "He supports me and says everything will be fine. He accepted my decision to exchange."

Andriy, the counterintelligence officer at the SBU, said that the Russian intelligence service doesn't really value those who are recruited from afar. "They just use them."

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He added that there will always be people trying to steal secrets – and for intelligence operatives, the hunt for traitors never stops. “It’s meticulous work, involving detailed study of the collaborator’s life. Sometimes you get to the point where you know their life so well that you become a part of it,” he said.

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."