Priest’s daughter from Pokrovsk passed data on Ukrainian troops to Russia
In 2024, 19-year-old Khrystyna Harkavenko, the daughter of a priest from Pokrovsk, organized a livestream of Ukrainian troop movements from a church window. She was later convicted of high treason and is now seeking inclusion in a prisoner exchange in order to move to Russia.
This was reported by CNN.
According to Harkavenko, she initially began communicating with a representative of Russian intelligence by chance. What started as casual conversation eventually led to the interlocutor identifying himself as an agent of Russia’s security services and proposing cooperation.
At the request of an alleged Federal Security Service (FSB) agent in July 2024, she placed a mobile phone on a church window where her father served and livestreamed a road used by Ukrainian military units. The footage was reportedly transmitted to Russian intelligence services.
Ukrainian prosecutors state this was not her only task. Over the course of a year, she passed on information about the locations of Ukrainian troops and equipment in Pokrovsk. Harkavenko admitted that at some point she wanted to stop cooperating, but the agent allegedly assured her that nothing bad would happen.
She said she received money from the FSB, though she claimed her primary motivation was continuing communication with the agent. The head of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Pavlo Uhrovetskyi, noted that her relationship with the agent was not only personal but also influenced by her pro-Russian views.
After being exposed, Harkavenko pleaded guilty and expressed remorse, stating she regrets the harm caused to her family and her own life. At the same time, Uhrovetskyi believes she is seeking a prisoner exchange to relocate to relatives in Russia. Her father, despite being shocked by her actions, supported her decision to pursue an exchange.
Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine detained a Russian GRU agent within the ranks of the Armed Forces in Kharkiv region. The agency has also exposed new draft evasion schemes across Ukraine.
