[2][3] Born in the city of Rēzekne to a Russian mother and a Ugandan father, Ayo spent most of his early life in Latvia before moving to the United Kingdom to pursue his master's degree at Birkbeck College, University of London.

[8][9] After spending five and a half months in jail, his security measure was changed from imprisonment to police surveillance at Ayo's request, when he cited his diabetes.

He was arrested in Donetsk on 1 April 2014 for "preparation of an armed coup to overthrow the government and to undermine the territorial integrity of Ukraine"[21][22] and deported to the United Kingdom, where Ayo took part of demonstrations for a couple of weeks.

[23] On 16 May 2014, the Riga Central District Court ordered Ayo taken into custody and the Security Police commenced criminal prosecution for incitement to violently overthrow the government of Latvia, to change the political system, and to liquidate Latvian national independence.

[24] On the night to 30 May petards and smoke grenades were thrown at the Latvian general consulate in St. Petersburg by members of The Other Russia party, who set up a Soviet flag on the façade of the building, distributed pamphlets and demanded release of Ayo.

[27][28] In early 2015, with an ongoing criminal case and while being under police surveillance Ayo fled Latvia by hitch-hiking to Tallinn, where he took a ferry to Finland and then traveled to Russia by bus, eventually arriving in Eastern Ukraine.

There he joined the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic[29] in what he described as "military-political work", i.e., writing articles for a local newspaper,[30] but he also expressed a desire to undergo training and sign up for active service.

[32][33] Ayo later reported taking part in pro-Russian operations in Debaltseve and near Stanytsia Luhanska among other places and being promoted to sergeant, going from a gunner on an artillery howitzer to a member of a motorized infantry brigade.

[34] In the middle of April 2019, Ayo was declared a suspect by the Latvia's State Security Service in a case regarding illegal participation in the pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine.

[36] The Latvian Prosecutor General's Office requested his extradition to Latvia,[37][38] while Ayo asked Vladimir Putin for political asylum in Russia.