Prystaiko was born on 20 February 1970 in the city of Kiliya (Odesa Oblast), Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.

[citation needed] In 1994, following his family's tradition of government service, he obtained a position at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of Ukraine.

[citation needed] In 1997, he took a position in the economic section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, where he tried to develop trade with Asian countries.

[citation needed] It was the most important task because, at that time, the Ministry initiated negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the GATT/WTO and started to look for new opportunities for Ukrainian business in the markets, especially in Africa and Asia.

[citation needed] In 2002, he started working at the Foreign Policy Directorate of the Administration of the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma.

[15] But on 4 March 2020, he was released from the post and appointed Vice Prime Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration in the Government of Denys Shmyhal.

[19] In February 2022, during the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis, Prystaiko said UK defence secretary's Ben Wallace's comparison of diplomatic efforts with Russia to the appeasement policies of the 1930s was unhelpful.

[21] On 21 July 2023, Prystaiko was sacked as Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom by President Zelenskyy using a Presidential decree.

[22] Prystayko's father Volodymyr Ilyich Pristayko [uk] (1941–2008) was Lieutenant General of Justice and Vice director of the SBU, and in 1991 he started working in a commission of adaptation of laws to EU standards and on rehabilitation of politically repressed.