Machine crossing: who helped the organizer of the attack on airfields to escape from Russia

Artyom and Ekaterina Timofeev fled from Russia to Kazakhstan in a Toyota Hiace car operated by a private trucking company from Chelyabinsk. Izvestia managed to find the car itself, its owner, find out how the couple hired a driver and which route they traveled to Kazakhstan. The Russian Interior Ministry put Artyom and Ekaterina Timofeev on the wanted list almost immediately after drones attacked a number of Russian military airfields on June 1. It turned out that the trucks in which the UAVs were transported belonged specifically to Timofeev's company. However, they left Russia on May 28. How exactly the couple managed to organize their escape is described in the Izvestia article.

Timofeev's escape route

Shortly before the drone attack on Russian airfields, which happened on June 1, the spouses Artyom and Ekaterina Timofeev left Russia. This became known thanks to Ekaterina's own posts on her Telegram channel "Witchy Notes" (now deleted): four days before the terrorist attack, on May 28, she posted pictures from the trip and wrote that they were going to Astana.

Izvestia analyzed Timofeeva's photographs and was able to accurately determine the make, model and route of the car in which the now-wanted couple was leaving Russia from the details of the interior of the car. The characteristic seat upholstery in the form of a textured pattern interspersed with purple shades, as well as plastic interior elements, are found only in fifth-generation Toyota Hiace minibuses produced from 2004 to 2010.

On the Avito online platform, Izvestia found many ads about transfers from Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg to Kazakhstan. However, only a few of them offered a ride in a Toyota Hiace car with an interior that matched the one in Ekaterina Timofeeva's photo.

It is noteworthy that the addresses indicated in these ads were located just a few kilometers from the house on the University Embankment of Chelyabinsk, where, according to Izvestia, the defendants in the case of the attack on airfields have recently lived. All this suggests that the couple used the services of private carriers found through Avito, rather than licensed professional companies.

At the same time, Izvestia established that all these ads were posted by members of the same family from different accounts. The family sells vehicles, and the minibus itself was registered to the head of the family, Dmitry K. (name changed). A month and a half before the terrorist attack, in April 2025, Dmitry reissued the Toyota. For whom exactly and on what terms is unknown. Presumably, we are talking about a banal re-registration of a car to another family member. This is indicated by the fact that Dmitry and his relatives did not remove ads about their transfer services, which they provide on this car.

At the same time, on the day when Ekaterina Timofeeva wrote in her Telegram channel about the trip, that is, on May 28, Alexander's Toyota left for Kazakhstan. One of the traffic cameras recorded that the driver of the minivan exceeded the speed limit around 7 a.m. local time near the city of Yemanzhelinsk on the A-310 highway. This is a direct highway — it's only about an hour and a half drive to the Bugristoe automobile checkpoint.

Thus, at about 9 a.m. on May 28, the couple probably crossed the border with Kazakhstan and arrived in Astana in the afternoon. Considering that Artyom and Ekaterina Timofeev have dual citizenship — Russian and Ukrainian — it is possible that they flew from Astana to Turkey: for short trips, citizens of Russia and Ukraine do not need a visa to enter this country.

Izvestia managed to contact the owner of the Toyota, Dmitry K. During the conversation, he confirmed that police officers had visited him, but declined to comment further on the Timofeyevs' trip.:

— I can't divulge it.

— The police have already come to you, haven't they?

— Yes, but I can't say anything.

— Can you tell me how they behaved, were they nervous or not nervous?

— I can't say anything. Goodbye.

What is Artyom Timofeev suspected of?

Russian airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions were attacked by drones on the afternoon of June 1. The drones took off directly from trucks parked near the airfields. The Security Service of Ukraine claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack and stated that it was Operation Web, which had been preparing for more than a year and a half. The Russian Defense Ministry said that during the attack, “several pieces of aviation equipment caught fire.”

Later, the first suspect appeared in the attack case. It turned out to be Artem Timofeev, a native of Zhytomyr, who moved to the Chelyabinsk region. It was he who owned the trucks from which the drones took off.

Artem Timofeev and his wife Ekaterina moved from Ukraine to Russia shortly after their wedding in 2016. Artyom's father owns a flour production company in the Chelyabinsk region. Relatives helped Artyom and Ekaterina Timofeev obtain Russian citizenship and other documents, although, judging by photos from social networks, he supported Euromaidan and was a participant in it.

After moving, Artyom worked in his father's company, and his wife worked as a tattoo artist. However, at the end of October 2024, Timofeev suddenly decided to register an individual entrepreneur for the transportation of goods. In Ukraine, Timofeev also registered an operating cargo transportation company, Surga. After the attack, Artyom and Ekaterina Timofeev were put on the wanted list.

Earlier, Izvestia also reported that Timofeev turned out to be familiar with the ex-candidate for the post of deputy defense minister Ekaterina Koval, who has many contacts among high-ranking SBU officers.