Pictures show the CIA deputy director’s son who – unbeknownst to his mother and father – was fighting for Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
Michael Gloss, 21, was killed in the war in April last year, but details of the story have only emerged now after an investigation by Russian independent news outlet iStories.
Photos showing him wearing camouflage and hanging out with soldiers have emerged.
His mother, Julianne Gallina Gloss, is the Central Intelligence Agency’s deputy director for digital innovation.
His father, Larry Gloss, is a US Navy veteran who participated in Operation Desert Storm and the Iraq War.
‘With his noble heart and warrior spirit, Michael forged his own hero’s path when he tragically died in Eastern Europe on April 4, 2024,’ his family wrote in an obituary that did not mention he was in the Russian army.
They found out their son died in June and held a funeral for him in December, according to The Washington Post. However, his involvement in the Russian military was not revealed until Friday when iStories published a story.
The CIA said Gallina and her family ‘suffered an unimaginable personal tragedy in the spring of 2024 when her son Michael Gloss, who struggled with mental health issues, died while fighting in the conflict in Ukraine.’
Michael Gloss, 21, was killed in the war in April last year, but details of the story have only emerged now after an investigation by Russian independent news outlet iStories
Photos showing him wearing camouflage (right) and hanging out with soldiers have emerged
His mother, Julianne Gallina Gloss, is the Central Intelligence Agency’s deputy director for digital innovation. The intelligence agency ‘considers Michael’s passing to be a private family matter for the Gloss family – not a national security issue’
Michael had reportedly stopped taking his medication years ago and had started going ‘off the grid.’
The intelligence agency ‘considers Michael’s passing to be a private family matter for the Gloss family – not a national security issue.’
It was with ‘disbelief and devastation’ that his parents discovered from the State Department that their son had been killed from a ‘massive blood loss’ in an artillery barrage in Donetsk region fighting for Putin’s forces.
‘It was absolutely news to us that he was involved in any military relationship with Russia,’ his father told The Washington Post.
His father said: ‘He died running to aid a wounded comrade, trying to protect him. That was classic Michael.’
He had gone to Russia after visiting ex-Soviet republic Georgia.
Michael had left his Virginia home in January 2023 to travel to Italy to work on farms and Turkey to help with earthquake restoration. He then went to Georgia, where he attended the Rainbow Family counterculture movement.
He then went to Russia, where he told his parents he was meeting friend, his father said.
He had previously denied to his parents – who found out about his death in June – that he had not joined the military when they discovered his location was in a military training town in Russia
!['Our biggest fear while we were waiting for him to be repatriated was that someone over there [in Moscow] would put two and two together and figure out who his mother was, and use him as a prop,' Larry, his dad, said](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/04/26/16/97726525-14650649-_Our_biggest_fear_while_we_were_waiting_for_him_to_be_repatriate-a-12_1745682713211.jpg)
‘Our biggest fear while we were waiting for him to be repatriated was that someone over there [in Moscow] would put two and two together and figure out who his mother was, and use him as a prop,’ Larry, his dad, said
The CIA said Gallina and her family ‘suffered an unimaginable personal tragedy in the spring of 2024 when her son Michael Gloss, who struggled with mental health issues, died while fighting in the conflict in Ukraine’
His parents were ‘on guard, skeptical, suspicious’ but ‘at no point did he suggest or did we suspect he would join the military. Never,’ Larry told The Washington Post.
Michael told his parents he wanted to stay in Russia in September 2023 and by December 2023, he had been shipped off to Ukraine to fight in the war, iStories found.
When his parents tracked his phone after his arrival in the totalitarian country, they discovered he was in Avangard, which does military training. He denied he had joined, The Post said.
Michael had said that he wanted to get Russian citizenship but his parents believe that his ‘mental illness’ was a factor in his decisions about fighting for Putin’s forces.
They were worried that the Russians would twig who his mother was.
‘Our biggest fear while we were waiting for him to be repatriated was that someone over there [in Moscow] would put two and two together and figure out who his mother was, and use him as a prop,’ Larry told The Washington Post.
Michael apparently believed that Russia would let him fulfil his dream of building a water purifier to help people who had no access to clean water.
‘I can only attribute it to his mental illness,’ Larry told the newspaper. ‘It clearly defies logic.
‘If you knew our son, he was the ultimate antiestablishment, anti-authority young man the minute he came into the world.’
