[1] Kostyukov was appointed the acting Director of GRU on 22 November 2018 following the death of his predecessor Igor Korobov and is a noted hardliner.

He has been placed on the US Government's "blacklist" for allegedly interfering in the 2016 US presidential elections.

[citation needed] In March 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kostyukov was placed on a European Union "blacklist".

[3] On 25 March 2022, former Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov claimed that Kostyukov and Russian defence minister Sergey Shoigu had suffered a sudden illness, stating, "The symptoms of both are exactly the same - heartburn, shortness of breath.

"[4] The Moscow Times considered Kostyukov to have disappeared from public view in mid-March together with other senior siloviki (key Russian security officials), including Sergey Shoigu, Viktor Zolotov and Valery Gerasimov.