Zaluzhny inherited a million dollars and donated them to the army

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Валерий Залужный

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, inherited $1 million from the United States, after which he transferred all this money to the needs of the Ukrainian army? writes The New York Times

Zaluzhny received an inheritance from an American of Ukrainian origin Grigory Stepants. This was reported by the Stepantsov family. In January, the general donated the entire amount received to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is confirmed by the press service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In response to a request from Ukrayinska Pravda, the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed this information.

Stepanets really left Zaluzhny an inheritance of $1 million.

“General Zaluzhny sent this money in full to the special account of the National Bank of Ukraine to raise funds for the needs of the army, which was confirmed by the bank’s SWIFT message dated January 5, 2023.”

Zaluzhny’s direct speech: “I gave my whole life to the Armed Forces. And he had not the slightest doubt what he should do with the inheritance. The last will of Mr. Gregory, obviously, was to support the Ukrainian army in my person. I am grateful to everyone who helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And I am grateful to my family for understanding.”

Biography of Stepanets

Stepanets was born in 1938 in Vinnitsa. His father fought in World War II and was killed by the Germans in October 1941. Grigory and his mother were evacuated to the Urals, where they were subjected to starvation and other trials. After the end of the war, they returned to Vinnitsa.

There was also very little food in the city then. They survived only due to the fact that the uncle, who fought (was wounded and lost his leg), shared military rations with them.

Stepanets graduated from high school and in 1956 entered the Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, where he received a master’s degree in mathematics, a master’s degree in chemistry, and a PhD in physical chemistry. He was fluent in Ukrainian, Russian, German, Italian and English.

While working at the Geophysical Research Institute in Moscow, he signed a letter in support of dissidents and was soon dismissed by the Soviet authorities on a falsified pretext. Later he was persecuted by the KGB and could not work. He applied for an exit visa, but was denied.

The situation changed after Gorbachev came to power, and he received permission to leave the Soviet Union. In 1989, he came to the US and started working for Microsoft in Redmond, Washington as a software developer. Together with another software developer, they invented a patent assigned to Microsoft for decoding variable length data codes.