In his interview to Komsomolskaya Pravda and other Russian mass-media, Tolstykh claimed that he was from Ilovaisk and served in the Ukrainian Army from 1998 to 2000 before working at a sling rope factory and as a security guard in a supermarket[4][5] (although Tolstykh said he had speech impediment which barred him from serving in the Ukrainian army[4]). In an interview he stated that his great-grandfather was an ethnic Georgian.