April 17, 2025

From Moscow Lawyer to Ukrainian Spy


From Moscow Lawyer to Ukrainian Spy
Russian military vehicles with Z symbols during the invasion of Ukraine. Anonymous author, Wikimedia Commons

The independent publication Verstka interviewed a Moscow lawyer who abandoned a successful career and family to fight alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine and ended up working as a Ukrainian intelligence agent inside the Russian army. For the safety of those involved, Verstka changed the subjects’ names.

Dmitry Vorobyov, 43, had a successful legal career, his own business in Moscow, a wife, and two young children before the start of Russia’s War on Ukraine. Politically active, he supported opposition causes, including Alexei Navalny.

According to Vorobyov, the full-scale invasion shocked him. “I looked at people in the subway, at people in court hearings deciding bankruptcy cases, and thought: ‘Guys, what are you doing? Are you idiots or something? You need to go to Red Square,’” Vorobyov told Verstka.

By the summer 2022, Vorobyov decided he "could no longer remain inactive" and resolved to join Ukrainian forces. He studied maps and found a route to cross the Belarus-Ukraine border unnoticed. Ukrainian authorities detained him for illegally crossing the border, fined him, and sentenced him to eight days of administrative arrest. oVerstka confirmed these details through court documents.

Vorobyov, however, never served the sentence. Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officers took him directly from court to Lutsk, where he was held and interrogated with polygraph tests for two weeks.

Unable to join Ukrainian forces, Vorobyov returned to Russia via Belarus, maintaining contacts with SBU agents through WhatsApp. Then Vorobyov developed a plan: he would join the Russian army to relay frontline intelligence to Ukraine. The plan was approved in SBU, and in June 2023, he enlisted through a Moscow recruitment center.

After two weeks of training in Volgograd, Vorobyov’s unit deployed to Crimea. Vorobyov described approximately 70% to 80% of his fellow soldiers as having criminal backgrounds. “Lost people. Like me, a lost person trying to find himself by going to war,” he reflected.

Vorobyov's company was later transferred to Krynki village in Ukraine's occupied Kherson region, site of a significant Ukrainian breakthrough in 2023. Vorobyov believes he contributed to Ukraine’s success: “I don't know exactly why they went through Krynki, but I think my role wasn’t insignificant.”

He provided Ukrainian forces with details about troop locations, weaponry, and targets for strikes. Vorobyov believes other Ukrainian agents were also present, citing an officer from a neighboring company who reportedly swam across the Dnieper River to defect.

Russian losses in Krynki were heavy, according to Vorobyov. “From October to December, 80% of our personnel were lost. The ratio was one killed to three wounded. Of 96 people, only 20 remained active,” he stated.

Counterintelligence arrived later to investigate the breach in Krynki. Vorobyov narrowly avoided detection. "They checked my phone, which contained all my communications with coordinates. I calmly handed it over; they didn’t find anything because I had a hidden space," he explained.

In February 2024, Vorobyov was wounded in a drone attack and hospitalized in Moscow. In spring 2024, following his recovery, he again sought to join Ukrainian forces. "My family fell apart—my wife couldn’t handle it. I didn't want to return to war from Russia. I told my contacts in Lutsk I was tired of playing Stirlitz (a famous fictional Soviet spy) and preferred joining them. They agreed," Vorobyov recounted.

He bought tickets to Yerevan and Simferopol as a cover and successfully left Russia. However, Ukraine rejected his request to enter, prompting him to explore other options. After interviewing with the Freedom of Russia Legion, Vorobyov moved to another undisclosed country, where he is looking for a way to officially join Ukrainian forces.

During his interview with Verstka, Vorobyov turned on his frontline phone to share wartime photos and found warnings from former comrades: "Be careful, you've been declared AWOL."

You Might Also Like

A Deserter's Dilemma
  • March 30, 2025

A Deserter's Dilemma

A Ukrainian man who had served with Russian forces in the  Donetsk People's Republic and was discharged has been sentenced for desertion.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955