Mykhailo Podolyak

Mykhailo Mykhailovych Podolyak (Михайло Михайлович Подоляк; born February 16, 1972) is a Ukrainian politician, journalist and negotiator, serving as the advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

In 2022, he became one of the representatives of Ukraine at Russian-Ukrainian peace negotiations during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Podolyak spent his childhood in Lviv and Novovolynsk, Ukraine.

Between 1989 and 2004, Podolyak lived and worked in Belarus.

He graduated from the Minsk Medical Institute.

In the 1990s, Podolyak worked as a journalist for various newspapers, including Narodnaja Vola and Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta as well as a newspaper affiliated with the pro-Russian politician Sergei Gaidukevich.

Podolyak was criticized by members of the Belarusian democratic opposition for a publication discrediting the former opposition presidential candidate Alaksandar Milinkievič.

In 2004, Podolyak was deputy editor-in-chief of the opposition Belarusian newspaper Vremya.

In June 2004, officers of the KGB of Belarus came to his house and gave him half an hour to collect his things.

The Belarusian authorities accused Podoliak that his activities "contradict the interests of state security", and the materials contain "slanderous fabrications about the real situation in the country, calls to destabilize the political situation in Belarus".

In June, the newspaper published his article "The Last Supper": it concerned the poisoning in 2004 of the then presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

The material was a journalistic investigation presented in an artistic form.

In it, Podolyak, relying on his own sources, suggested that persons close to Yushchenko were behind the poisoning of David Zhvania, deputy head of the headquarters of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine Bloc, and Yevhen Chervonenko, Minister of Transport and Communications, a member of Yushchenko's party.

After that, investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU, headed at that time by Oleksandr Turchynov), came to the editorial office to find out if similar materials about Yushchenko's poisoning would still be published in the newspaper.

In addition, the Prosecutor General's Office summoned Podolyak for questioning as a witness in the poisoning case.

According to Podolyak himself, during the 4 hours of interrogation he was mainly asked about the sources of information, which he refused to name.

Law enforcement officers also tried to find out who paid for the publication of such an article.

Podolyak claims that there was no customer, but due to pressure, the newspaper was unable to publish the second part of the investigation.

In 2005, Podolyak was the editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Hazeta.

In 2006, Podolyak began working with Ukrainian internet publication Obozrevatel as a freelancer.

At the same time, he became an adviser to the owner of the publication, Chairman of the State Committee for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship, Mykhailo Brodskyy.

In December 2011, Podoliak became the editor-in-chief of Obozrevatel.

In April 2020, Podolyak became an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and an "anti-crisis manager" of the Office.

He controls the entire information policy of the Office of the President and advises Volodymyr Zelenskyy directly.

In addition, he prepares ministers of the Ukrainian government for broadcasts in the media so that their theses are coordinated with the content promoted by the president.

On 25 February, as the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine had begun, Podolyak and prime minister Denys Shmyhal briefed the media.

In the early days, the Russian armed forces failed to significantly advance deep into the territory of Ukraine due to Ukrainian defenses.

On 26 February, the Office of the President of Ukraine alleged that the advance of the Russians had stopped due to “huge losses” allegedly inflicted by the Ukrainian army.

On 28 February, the first round of Ukrainian-Russian negotiations took place on the territory of Belarus.

Podolyak, as part of the Ukrainian delegation, participated in both this and subsequent rounds of meetings and became the main speaker of Ukraine during the negotiations.

At the same time, according to him, the key demands, uncompromising for Ukraine, are: a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops to the positions they occupied before 24 February, and security guarantees.

''“Our position at the negotiations is quite specific — legally verified security guarantees; ceasefire; withdrawal of Russian troops.

This is possible only with a direct dialogue between the heads of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.”'' — said Podolyak in an interview with PBS.

“There are some concessions that we definitely aren’t going to make,” he said.

“We cannot give away any territories.”

After the discovery of Russian war crimes in Bucha in April 2022 Podolyak was worried that the occurrence would complicate ceasefire discussions with Russia.

On 22 May 2022, after Russia captured the Azovstal steelworks and took full control of Mariupol, Podolyak ruled out ceasefire talks with Russia and would not accept any deal that ceded territories to Russia.

Around 20,000 people were killed in Mariupol since the Russian invasion began.

On 9 June 2022, Podolyak stated to the BBC "that between 100 and 200 Ukrainian troops are being killed on the front line every day."

On 17 June 2022, Podolyak was interviewed by France24 in the wake of the visit of a day after the visit of the Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, Mario Draghi and Klaus Iohannis to Kyiv and Irpin.