Recruited through a Russian sect: IT specialist and teacher from Kyiv were sentenced to 13 years for cooperation with the FSB

Publication Watchers Media revealed details of an old case regarding the strike on the Ivano-Frankivsk airport, involving a rather strange trio — consisting of an IT specialist, a teacher, and a blogger, who were recruited by the FSB before the full-scale war.

At the time of the trial (which took place in early March 2022), the spokesperson did not deem it appropriate to disclose names — but it is now known that it concerns the blogger from Kharkiv Dmitrii Kuznetsov, IT specialist Oleksandr Vikhlyayev, and mathematics teacher Halyna Kryshtal (both from Kyiv).

Dmytro Kuznetsov and Oleksandr Vikhlyayev/photo:Galka.if.ua — Dmytro Kuznetsov and Oleksandr Vikhlyayev. Photo: Galka.if.ua

Strike on the Airport

February 24, 2022, will forever remain a fateful day in the memory of every Ukrainian — when Russia deceitfully struck at key military and infrastructure objects in Ukraine, starting the occupation of foreign and, at that time, partly defenseless territories.

One of the strikes hit the Ivano-Frankivsk airport. A major “contribution” to this was made by the blogger and teacher, who collected and sent the necessary reconnaissance information to the occupant, while the IT specialist was supposed to ensure data transmission and later facilitate the “colleagues'” escape abroad.

The Legend of the ‘Travel Blogger’

According to Kuznetsov from the FSB, he was introduced by a colleague from a sect of Russian origin called “School of DEIR,” and he directly met with the agent while being in a Russian church in France — there he received his first reward of 700 euros. The rest were sent to an electronic wallet in cryptocurrency, and instructions were given through a chat in Telegram.

Kuznetsov’s task was to, under the guise of a travel blogger who travels around Ukraine, document the current locations of certain objects, including defensive ones. For this purpose, he purchased a quadcopter and regularly published photos from his travels on his Instagram page, where he had about 30,000 followers.

Throughout November-December, Kuznetsov filmed bridges across the Dnipro in Kyiv, photographed the “Derzhprom” building complex in Kharkiv (attacked in October 2024), and the sea trade port in Odesa. Later, the blogger traveled to western Ukraine, where he photographed objects in Truskavets, Lviv, and Rakhiv, and in early February arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk, where he settled in a hotel near the military airfield.

The day before the invasion, Kuznetsov received an updated quadcopter from the technician, which from then on had features useful for flying in restricted zones, and also purchased two devices that mimic radiation from air defense systems — one of which he placed at the airport against the night of February 24, and in the morning after the strike, he published a photo of the damaged airport in his account with the caption: “Not a good morning, Comrade Putin”.

Star of the World

Halyna Kryshtal, who worked as a mathematics teacher in Kyiv, besides photos was to send the Russians coordinates (through the same IT specialist Vikhlyayev). In December, she settled in a rented house in the area of the landing course (glide path) of aircraft, particularly fighter jets of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and received 13,500 hryvnias from Vikhlyayev.

Halyna Kryshtal/photo:Galka.if.ua — Halyna Kryshtal. Photo: Galka.if.ua

During the investigation, Kryshtal claimed she was blackmailed and did not know where the photos sent to the signalman would go. At the same time, she, like the aforementioned blogger Kuznetsov, studied for about three years at the “DEIR” school in Kyiv.

Interestingly — at Kuznetsov and Kryshtal’s homes during the searches, they found powder and chocolate from fly agarics, while the library of materials on the Russian DEIR website includes the book “The Magic Mushroom Fly Agaric” (similar tags about fly agaric can be seen in the screenshot of the first post with Kuznetsov’s photo).

IT Specialist-Signalman

It is known that Kryshtal and Vikhlyayev actually had a “long history of connection” — in 2014, she met his family and provided them with tutoring services for two years.

IT specialist Vikhlyayev was a signalman, and his main tasks included transporting Kryshtal and transmitting the information received from the teacher to an unidentified representative of the FSB of Russia. Until the day of the full-scale invasion, he also settled in Western Ukraine and was supposed to ensure the illegal crossing of the Ukrainian border into Western Europe for group members after completing the task, but in March 2022, he was detained by Transcarpathian law enforcement officers.

Oleksandr Vikhlyayev in court, screenshot from Public video

Investigators noted that the detention of the defendants was greatly aided by vigilant local residents: for example, the local village head visited Kryshtal to check her documents, but she did not let him into the house and he reported her to the law enforcement officers. Another witness, who helped detain blogger Kuznetsov, said he was alerted by the man’s Kharkiv registration and predominantly Russian language in communication.

Ultimately, the court found all three defendants guilty of treason, sentencing each to 13 years in prison with confiscation of property.