General Staff analyst who drew the map "from where the attack was being prepared" ended up in the KGB pre-trial detention center for working for Ukrainian intelligence

Valery Vasilets in the center during his service in the Marjina Horka brigade. Photo from a "covert" VKontakte page under a false name.

One of Nasha Niva's sources shed light on the fate of the former serviceman, Major Valery Vasilets of the analytical department of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense, whom he met in the KGB pre-trial detention center in 2024.

Vasilets ended up in the pre-trial detention center on suspicion of treason (Part 2 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, punishment — from 10 to 20 years in prison) for cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence. Previously, no such person had been reported anywhere.

According to information from the Belpol databases, Valery Vasilets was born in Marjina Horka in 1992 into the family of a veteran of the 5th separate brigade, Senior Warrant Officer Vitaliy Vasilets. He studied at local school No. 5 and followed in his father's footsteps, eventually becoming a special forces officer in Marjina Horka.

The further fate of the young officer is known from his own words, told to cellmates in the KGB pre-trial detention center, where he was brought intimidated and beaten in early 2024.

"Valery began his service in special forces. In the same unit where his father served. But around 2018, he had a bad parachute jump and broke himself. To keep him from being discharged from the army, they found him another job, namely, an analyst in the General Staff.

To the question 'Well, Valeryk, what have you done in your years?', he loved to talk about the map 'from where the attack on Belarus was being prepared.' He claimed he drew it. He explained that their department regularly compiles and updates such maps, which show how and from which directions other states could start hostilities and what the response actions should look like. And therefore, he found it strange that the map was used in such a propagandistic way. But he was one of those who worked on it. It's not that he was very proud of it, but he just liked to repeat it as a joke and a meme," they told us.

According to the source, Valery was not interested in geopolitical subtleties, which strongly correlated with the article of accusation. Most of all, he loved the beautiful life.

"Ideologically, he was on Russia's side, he believed that Russia was winning, he thought that [Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman General Igor] Konashenkov was saying everything correctly and that he just needed to be understood — and we, the fools, don't understand. We asked him to give us some stencil that could be applied to Konashenkov's words to reveal the truth. But he couldn't explain it clearly, and they laughed at him: 'Damn, what kind of analyst are you then?'"

Павялічыць

Alexander Lukashenka and the very "attack map" to which Vasilets was involved. Screenshot: BelTA

But what was truly distinctive about him was that Valera was a gambler: betting, casinos, online casinos. According to him, the largest amount lost at one time was 60 thousand rubles. There were big wins too, but in the long run, you can't beat the casino, so he always needed money.

In his own reflective opinion, the Ukrainians found him by cross-referencing information, as the servers of the online casino he played in might have been in Ukraine. Because one day he received a "personalized offer": we know who you are, we know how and for how much you play, we know that you need money. We have money, and you have what we need, let's trade," the former inmate continued.

Valery Vasilets told his cellmates that he immediately went to his superiors to report that he was being recruited.

"The command ordered him to agree to communication. An operational game began: he transmitted disinformation to the Ukrainians, and he was allowed to keep some of the money. But these were not the amounts he was counting on. Besides, the Ukrainians also apparently understood that they were being given disinformation. They asked to add some truth in exchange for increased fees. And at some point, Vitalik decided to leak not only the information he was allowed to leak, but also what he was not allowed to. He earned a little, bought an apartment for a relative. But he miscalculated somewhere. How he was exposed, he didn't say, maybe he didn't even understand himself," the source says.

"His operational games continued for a long time while he was in the 'Amerikanka' [a colloquial term for the KGB pre-trial detention center]. For a long time, he was completely incognito. In the sense that the KGB has such a practice: a person is detained, but no one is informed about it. The detention order is not issued immediately, but only about a month later, when they achieve their other goals. That's how it was with Valera.

I understand they were waiting for someone to contact him.

At work, they created such conditions for him that other colleagues were supposed to think he was at work — even a special person of his build and in his clothes went "to work" at the General Staff, so that by cameras and silhouette, if someone was watching, they could think it was him. And then he was taken to Polesie for "evacuation" — that is, messages were sent from his name to the Ukrainian side, saying that it seems I am suspected, I want to escape, take me out.

Павялічыць

Valery Vasilets. Photo from a "covert" VKontakte page under a false name

He was led to record these messages, and he has a beard — so he was forbidden to shave while this game was being played. And this greatly annoyed the guards of the KGB pre-trial detention center, because it went against their internal rules, as everyone must be shaved and neatly trimmed. Well, from what I understood, some evacuees who went to pick him up were also arrested. But their names and details are unknown to me," our source summarized.

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