Vladimir Podolyak, the older brother of Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has died in Russia. The Russian intelligence colonel was 59 years old. The cause of his death is currently unknown.
The death of Vladimir Podolyak was first reported by the Russian opposition outlet SOTA, citing a publication in KIU (Russian Officers killed in Ukraine), a resource that tracks the deaths of Russian military personnel in the war in Ukraine.
Moreover, KIU published this news only yesterday, on July 6, although, as it became known, the man died on May 19, 2024. So the Russians did not report the death of their colonel.
“Vladimir Mikhailovich Podolyak, a retired Russian colonel and the older brother of the adviser to the President of Ukraine, Mikhail Podolyak, died on May 19, 2024, at the age of 59. The circumstances of his death are unknown. The Russians have not publicly reported this,” the publication says.
It seems that Volodymyr Podolyak was not yet a retired colonel.
There might not have been an official announcement of the retired colonel’s death. After all, as Mykhailo Podoliak claimed, his older brother had long been retired.
However, we can assume that Volodymyr Podoliak was still in the military. After all, one of the colonel’s last awards was the medal of the Russian Defense Ministry “Participant of a Special Military Operation”.
This award was established only in August 2022. And it was not given to just anyone, but only to those people who somehow participated in the so-called SMO (full-scale war against Ukraine).
However, it is unlikely that a 59-year-old colonel of the GRU (the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Federation) could have been a field commander in the war. But he certainly could have been useful to his country, performing intelligence functions.
His involvement in military intelligence is also evidenced by the fact that back in 2019, he was registered in Moscow at the address of military unit 22177, located at 50 Narodnogo Opolcheniya Street.
The institution located at this address is known as the so-called “Conservatory” – the Military Academy of the Russian Ministry of Defense. This educational institution trains military diplomats and officers for the GRU.
Another indirect evidence of his involvement in the GRU is a wreath on the grave of the deceased with the inscription “From the staff of the CPS” (CPS is Centre for Specialist Training of the GRU).
As you know, Mykhailo Podoliak himself has repeatedly said that he has not maintained close relations with his older brother for a long time. The only time they call each other on their birthdays is once a year.
But there is one interesting common circumstance in the biographies of the two brothers, who by the will of fate found themselves on opposite sides of the barricades. Podoliak Sr. participated on the Russian side in the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations that took place in Istanbul in the spring of 2022. His younger brother Mykhailo was a member of the Ukrainian delegation.
Tags: podolyak russia ukraine war russian intelligence yermak
