Russian Colonel Gratov participated in fighting at Luhansk, Donetsk, Ilovaisk, Debaltseve, and other cities, - SBU counterintelligence

Detained Russian Airborne Colonel Valery Gratov, who was intended by Russian secret services to be appointed "deputy defense minister of Transnistria republic," personally asked Russian President Putin for pension payments after being deported from Moldova.

This is evidenced by materials provided by SBU counterintelligence service to Censor.NET.

Read more: Counterintelligence has been preparing Gratov's detention for six months, - MP Herashchenko

In his letter to Putin, Gratov was asking the president to help him move his family from unrecognized Transnistria, where he served for many years prior to 2014, to the Russian Federation, and to appoint him pension payments.

Gratov wrote he was deported from Moldova in 2014 for participating in combat activities in Transnitria and the Donbas.

"After the deportation, I have had no means to live, deprived of ability to see my family, and help them. At the moment (the letter might have been written in 2015 - ed.) I stay in the Donbas," he wrote (the full text of the letter below).



Included in the letter was the copy of the document issued by a military unit No.08805 of the "Donetsk People's Republic" certifying that Gratov was fighting alongside Donbas terrorists (see below).



The letter by the military unit commander confirms Gratov's participation in combat activities in Luhansk, Alchevsk, Horlivka, Makiivka, Donetsk, Snizhne, Ilovaisk, Yenakieve, Vuhlehirsk, Debaltseve.

Gratov was born in 1952 in Irkutsk oblast of Russia.

After the Transnistria war he created the "security service" of its president (1990-1997).


Gratov, second left


Gratov, right

In addition to fighting in the Donbas, Gratov also fought in Transnistria (1992), Abkhazia (1993), and defended the White House in Moscow in 1993.



Gratov has numerous decorations from the Russian Federation, including from FSB.





As reported by war journalist Andrii Tsaplienko on July 8, SBU c ounterintelligence detained career Russian military, Colonel of the Airborne Forces Valery Gratov, who was heading for unrecognized Transnistria with a fake Ukrainian passport.

Among materials that Gratov had on him when detained, there are many photos with leaders of unrecognized Donbas republics.