Moscow lawyer Dmitry Vorobyov decided to go to fight on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, upon reaching Ukraine, he ended up at the SBU, where he was interrogated using a polygraph. According to Dmitry, SBU officers not only asked questions about his purpose in Ukraine but also engaged in «everyday» conversations. After that, the Ukrainian Armed Forces refused to take him and sent him back, but communication with SBU representatives continued. Meanwhile, the correspondence was conducted quite openly in the messenger WhatsApp.
By this time, Vorobyov had left his job, as he believed that if you work and pay taxes, you participate in the overall economy that supports the war.
The ex-lawyer calculated that the family's savings would last until about June of the following year, and he began to ponder what to do next, coming to the decision — to go to war as part of the Russian army. «Since they didn't give me the opportunity there, I'll fight from this side. It turns out, curator-not curator, friend-not friend agreed with this, said, no problem, go ahead», — Vorobyov told «Layout».
After signing the contract, he spent two weeks in a training unit in Volgograd, then transferred to Crimea and spent another three weeks at the training ground.
In the fall of 2023, Vorobyov found himself in a small village in the Kherson region, regularly going to the market in a neighboring village to bring food and SIM cards to his comrades, and through messengers, he passed information about the location and armament of his company to Ukrainian intelligence.
In October-November 2023, according to Dmitry, losses in his location reached 80% of the personnel, «out of 96 people, 20 remained in the ranks». «In my experience, you can safely triple this database of the deceased from «Mediazona»*», Vorobyov believes.
In November 2023, his company was rotated to Henichesk. At the end of the year, counterintelligence arrived in the city — to find out how the breakthrough happened. In Dmitry's opinion, his company might have attracted attention partly because of a video appeal by soldiers complaining about the lack of supplies and rotation. Vorobyov was also interrogated, but nothing was found. «I have never heard of cases where this counterintelligence found any spy. They are more likely to scare the military so they don't record more video appeals», the military man told journalists.
In Henichesk, Dmitry was sent on leave, and he celebrated the New Year with his family. And already on January 2, 2024, he returned to Krynyky, where he was awaited by a promotion — the secret SBU agent was given the rank of junior sergeant, appointed deputy platoon commander and squad leader.
In February 2024, Vorobyov was wounded and sent to the hospital. After that, he flew to Yerevan to again join the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but he was again refused. He applied to volunteer legions fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and he was helped to move to another country, where he is waiting for a response.
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent».