Biography
Valeriy Bailo, a pensioner from the Krasnodar Territory, became accused in the spring of 2024 because of his faith in Jehovah God. His home was searched, after which the man was taken into custody. On March 20, 2025, he died in the hospital, without obtaining medical care and without restoring his good name.
Valeriy was born in November 1957 in the village of Roylyanka, Odessa region of Ukraine. He has a younger brother. Their father worked on a state farm as a combine operator, and their mother was a high school mathematics teacher. The parents are no longer alive.
As a child, Valeriy loved to play chess and read books, was engaged in freestyle wrestling. After school, he graduated from the Nikolaev Shipbuilding Institute and got a job at a locomotive depot, where he met Yekaterina. In 1979 they got married. Two sons and a daughter were born in the marriage.
In the early 1980s, Valeriy, his wife and son moved to Yakutsk. In 1992, a family with two children returned to Ukraine, and 2 years later they moved to Gelendzhik (Krasnodar Territory).
In 1999, Valeriy retired and started breeding goats, rabbits and chickens. Yekaterina taught history and German at college and school. She was fond of local history and tourism—she organized hikes for students, conducted excursions to historical sites in the vicinity of Gelendzhik. Yekaterina also loved to read books, especially poetry, as well as play chess.
In the early 2000s, Valeriy became interested in the Bible, and soon his wife joined him in researching this book. In 2001, the couple became Jehovah's Witnesses. They were impressed by the Bible prophecies fulfilled in detail, as well as the scientific facts mentioned in the Bible.
In 2002, Yekaterina fell ill and later died of cancer. Due to the default, the family lost all the money earned in the North, and Valeriy and his three children were forced to live at the plant for seven years without electricity and water.
The believer suffered from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and arthrosis of the knee joint of the 2nd and 3rd stages. He needed urgent dental care: in the pre-trial detention center, his only tooth with which he could chew food became inflamed. Prison food caused digestive problems, so the man ate very little, mostly drinking water. Also, Valeriy could hardly move and needed surgery: in 2018, he was seriously injured as a result of a dog attack, he had completely torn knee ligaments sewn together, but over time he needed to replace the kneecap.
Valeriy said that faith in God helped him cope with all the difficulties. Despite all the difficulties, the believer tried to remain calm. "Now we are defending Jehovah, but soon he will stand up for us!" he said.