--- title: "\"Pirates of the 21st Century\": How SSO Veteran Artem Grot Turned M13 FIGHTS into a Movement Bringing Fighters Back to Life" description: "SSO veteran Artem Grot turned M13 FIGHTS from a private gym into a veterans' movement. After the sixth tournament on a barge in the Dnipro, he told RBK-Ukraine about the role of sport in rehabilitating fighters." date: 2026-09-08T14:38:01.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/m13-fights-artem-grot-veterans-movement-sport tags: [m13-fights, veterans, ukraine, combat-sports, rehabilitation, cco] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # "Pirates of the 21st Century": How SSO Veteran Artem Grot Turned M13 FIGHTS into a Movement Bringing Fighters Back to Life ![SSO veteran Artem Grot, founder of the M13 FIGHTS project, posing in front of a motorcycle](https://xab.info/media/2026/09/08/m13-fights-artem-grot-veteran-dvizhenie-sport/m13-fights-artem-grot-veteran-dvizhenie-sport-1.webp) ## 🎯 Key Points - On September 5, 2026, the sixth M13 FIGHTS league tournament was held on the barge "Perlenera" in the middle of the Dnipro in Kyiv — around ten fights across various disciplines. - The movement's founder, SSO veteran Artem Grot, created M13 as an alternative to state adaptation programs — through sport, the ring, and brotherhood. - The barge format is played up as a metaphor of "pirates of the 21st century" with a reference to fighters with amputations; the vessel was bought in Moldova and belongs to Yura Brodsky. - Grot sees the tournaments as a tool for consolidating military leaders and for rehabilitation, with plans to turn M13 into an all-Ukrainian community. Rather than waiting for state adaptation programs, Special Operations Forces veteran Artem Grot built his own path back to civilian life for military personnel — through sport, the ring, and a sense of brotherhood. His M13 FIGHTS project grew in just a few years from a private gym into a large-scale veterans' movement that unites fighters from different units and helps them stay connected with their comrades after demobilization. Grot told RBK-Ukraine, in an interview after the league's sixth tournament, why the military need their own competitions and how sport works as a tool of rehabilitation. ### The Sixth Tournament: Ten Fights in the Middle of the Dnipro On September 5, 2026, the sixth M13 FIGHTS league tournament took place in Kyiv. This time, around ten fights across various disciplines were held right on a barge moored at the river port in the middle of the Dnipro. According to Grot, the format was realized despite difficult circumstances — shelling and restrictions: "Thanks to analytics, negotiations, the freeze and the ceasefire, we got the date right... There was no shelling in Kyiv on exactly those days... no air raid alerts, everything was calm, with perfect weather." For the participants, the ring became not just a competition venue but a way to stay in touch with like-minded people in conditions where some of them had already been discharged into the reserves. ### The Barge "Perlenera" and the Piracy Metaphor The choice of location was no accident. Grot explains that the barge idea was born a few months earlier, when he was walking in a park and saw a sand barge drifting down the Dnipro from the Glass Bridge. Having found out that it belonged to Yura Brodsky, the team reached out to him with a request to provide the vessel. The barge named "Perlenera," bought in Moldova, was styled in the league's signature look, combining the logos with the image of the "Black Pearl." "I wanted to create the most outrageous and the most unique format that Ukraine had never seen... I like the analogy with piracy. You've seen that there are a lot of guys with amputations — we are like pirates of the 21st century," Grot says, adding that there will be more events on the water. ### Why the Military Need a Ring: Consolidating Leaders In response to the question about the meaning of the tournaments, Grot distinguishes between audiences. For the military themselves, the competitions work as a tool of consolidation: the ring brings together "a cross-section of very elite military personnel," with many representatives of special units — motivated fighters who inspire others. As an example, he cites the story of a fallen warrior with the callsign "Surfer," who, according to Grot, attended the league's tournaments and sent him messages with respect, because the fights inspired him. "This is where the consolidation of such opinion leaders happens, who promote sport within the troops... We must be very strong to stand up against the enemy, because the war will last for a long time yet," Grot summarizes. ### Sport as Rehabilitation and Brotherhood For society as a whole, the M13 FIGHTS tournaments become part of the movement's positioning and the formation of a new veterans' culture. Grot emphasizes that the sense of team is critically important for those discharged into the reserves: the ring provides what is often lacking after the front — belonging to a group where a person is once again "in line," rather than alone with the consequences of war. That is precisely why, by the founder's design, the league should transform from a fighting project into an all-Ukrainian community, with sport serving as the connecting element between combat experience and civilian life. ### What Comes Next Grot does not hide that the M13 FIGHTS format continues to experiment: each tournament is held in a unique place — from a theater stage in Khmelnytskyi to a barge in Kyiv. Future plans include developing the "water" line of events and expanding the geography of the movement. Thus, the project, which began as a private gym, had by the autumn of 2026 evolved into a public platform where sport, rehabilitation, and the military's own projects are united into a single adaptation structure, independent of state decisions. ## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification - ["Luck Is on Our Side": Veteran Artem Grot on Sport, M13, and Finding Himself After the War](https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/udacha-nashiy-storoni-veteran-artem-grot-1788865298.html) - Первоисточник: интервью Грота после шестого турнира на барже в Днепре (5 сентября 2026), детали о «Перленере», Юре Бродском, позывном «Сёрфер» и планах движения. - [Spectacular Fights Among the Military: M13 FIGHTS Held a Tournament on a Barge in the Center of the Capital](https://sport.unian.net/othersports/zrelishchnye-boi-sredi-voennyh-m13-fights-provel-turnir-na-barzhe-v-centre-stolicy-13491852.html) - Независимое подтверждение проведения турнира M13 FIGHTS на барже в центре Киева. - [Bare-Knuckle Fighting Tournament Among the Military in Khmelnytskyi. The M13 Fights League Opened the Season](https://gordonua.com/section-sport/news-turnir-kulachnykh-boyiv-mizh-viyskovymy-u-khmelnytskomu-liha-m13-fights-vidkryla-sezon-27-04-2026.html) - Контекст: предыдущий (сезонный) турнир лиги в Хмельницком, согласуется с упоминанием театра в интервью. - [Bare-Knuckle Fighting Tournament Among the Military Took Place in Khmelnytskyi: The M13 FIGHTS League Opened the Season](https://ukranews.com/news/1148407-turnir-kulachnyh-boev-mezhdu-voennymi-sostoyalsya-v-hmelnitskom-liga-m13-fights-otkryla-sezon) - Дополнительный контекст по сезонному турниру в Хмельницком; противоречий с киевским событием не содержит. ## ❓ FAQ ### Q: Where and when was the sixth M13 FIGHTS tournament held? **A:** On September 5, 2026, in Kyiv, on the barge "Perlenera" in the middle of the Dnipro; around ten fights across various disciplines took place. ### Q: Who is Artem Grot and what is M13 FIGHTS? **A:** Artem Grot is a Special Operations Forces veteran and the founder of the M13 FIGHTS movement, which grew from a private gym into a veterans' community uniting sport, rehabilitation, and military projects. ### Q: Why was the tournament held on a barge? **A:** Grot wanted the most outrageous and unique format that Ukraine had never seen, and developed the "pirates of the 21st century" metaphor with a reference to fighters with amputations; the barge was provided by its owner, Yura Brodsky. ### Q: Why do the military need such competitions? **A:** According to Grot, the tournaments consolidate military leaders, motivate fighters, and help them rehabilitate and preserve brotherhood after the front, while for society they shape a new veterans' culture.