Veria - Claim Fact Check

Claim: Mykhailo Podolyak suggests that Ukrainian elites are all thieves because of their Russianness

Based on my research of available sources and claims databases, here is my analysis:

Reasoning:

I found no evidence that Mykhailo Podolyak ever stated Ukrainian elites are "all thieves because of their Russianness." This specific formulation does not appear in any verified sources¹²³⁴⁵⁶.
What Podolyak has actually said is that corruption in Ukraine is partly a legacy of Kremlin influence systems. Following a November 2025 energy sector corruption scandal, he stated: "This is a logical continuation of the past, when the Kremlin has been creating a system for decades to keep Ukraine in its sphere of influence. Corruption was one of its main tools, and the remnants of this mechanism still exist"⁵⁷.
Podolyak has separately criticized Russian (not Ukrainian) behavior, calling theft and looting "the true content of modern 'Russian culture'" in the context of Russia stealing Ukrainian museum artifacts from occupied territories¹. He has also said "Russia lacks the necessary skills for this—their only 'skill' is theft"². These comments were directed at Russia's actions during the invasion, not at Ukrainian elites.
Podolyak has also described corruption as "an integral part of the modern economy" in both democracies and authoritarian systems generally—a universal observation, not an ethnic accusation⁸⁶.
The claim appears to conflate Podolyak's criticism of Kremlin-era corruption networks in Ukraine with unrelated comments he made about Russian cultural practices, distorting both into a false attribution about Ukrainian elites being thieves due to Russian ethnicity.
Other sources discussing "thieves" in relation to Russian elites (such as Roman Sheremeta's analysis of Russia's "prison code" culture)⁹ are misattributed to Podolyak in this claim.

Overall validity: 5%