The KIU findings are based on a leak from Rosstat, Russia's federal statistics service, carried out in late October and early November by the hacker groups Silent Crow and Cyberpartisans BY, which said they downloaded about 23 terabytes of data.
According to a record in the Rosstat materials, 59-year-old Vladimir Podolyak died on 19 May 2024 in the occupied settlement of Kirillovka in the Zaporizhzhia region. The cause of death is listed as an "unspecified intracranial injury" and "injuries caused by unspecified military actions." The entry contains no other details.
KIU located Vladimir Podolyak's grave as early as 2024, when the circumstances of his death remained unknown. The cross bears the same date, 19 May 2024. In the portrait at the grave, the man is shown in the uniform of a Russian army colonel with two Orders of Courage and the badge "For Service in Military Intelligence." Nearby, KIU noted a wreath with a ribbon reading "From the staff of the CPS" — likely the GRU's Specialist Training Center.
Mykhailo Podolyak has not commented on his brother's death. In February 2024 he said his relative had chosen to live in another country back in Soviet times and that he did not keep in touch with him. At the time, Zelensky's adviser also denied that his brother had links to Russian intelligence. In a 2021 interview with Ukrainian journalists, Mykhailo Podolyak described his elder brother as "long since an ordinary military pensioner."
The publication notes, however, that Mykhailo Podolyak had previously acknowledged Vladimir's links to Russian special services.