Katsiaryna Brukhanava is a citizen of Ukraine, originally from the city of Kherson. She studied in China, graduated from the university there in 2015 and moved to Belarus in 2016. She worked as a Chinese translator in Belarus.

While crossing the Belarusian border, Katerina was detained. She was asked to hand over her phone for inspection, which she did, along with the passwords. Belarusian law enforcement officers found out that on March 30, 2022, she sent two videos to the Zerkalo editorial chatbot. The videos showed the movement of Russian military equipment near Minsk, which she had filmed herself.

She was charged under Part 1 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (promoting extremist activities). The trial against Katsiaryna took place in October 2023 in the Brest Regional Court. On October 13, 2023 the judge Andrei Siz sentenced Katsiaryna to two years and six months of imprisonment.