Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Murayev disappeared and was rumoured to be in Russia, while other sources claimed he lived in Austria.

Murayev was born on 2 December 1976 in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast in then the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.

Murayev's father Volodymyr Kuzmych was the general director of a construction company Rapid CJSC.

His mother Olha Oleksiivna was associate professor of the department of chemistry at National University of Kharkiv.

[1] In the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election Murayev failed to win a seat as part of the electoral alliance KUCHMA.

[6] Murayev was reelected in the Kharkiv Oblast Council during the 2010 Ukrainian local elections, this time for Party of Regions.

[20][21] British Foreign Minister Liz Truss wrote on Twitter that the UK "will not tolerate Kremlin plot to install pro-Russian leadership in Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the British accusation was "evidence that it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, that are escalating tensions around Ukraine.

"[22] Volodymyr Fesenko [uk; ru], a Ukrainian political analyst, wrote that "Murayev, for all his pro-Russianness, is not a figure who is very close to the Kremlin, especially compared to (Viktor) Medvedchuk.

"[23][a] In February 2022, it was announced that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine had introduced sanctions against the TV channel NASH, on which Murayev appeared regularly.

[30] Ukrainian Internet publication Obozrevatel claimed early April 2022 that Murayev had gone to Russia with the help of Russian special services.

[30] Internet newspaper Ukrainska Pravda's sources (in law enforcement agencies) told them (in December 2022) that Murayev had left Ukraine in May 2022.

In September 2022, Ukrainska Pravda journalists stated that Murayev and his family live in Vienna and sometimes visit Bratislava on business.

[4] Murayev claimed (contrary to Western mainstream media narratives) that US private military companies such as Greystone and Blackwater took part in the battle of Mariupol.

[4] Murayev opposes decommunization and has advocated for the preservation (in Ukraine) of the symbols of the Soviet Union as "historical and cultural memory".

"[38][39] In response to this in June 2018 the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine launched criminal proceedings against then MP Murayev on charges of treason and deliberately spreading false information about a crime.

"[40] And used what he called the example of Nadiya Savchenko "when they did their best to create an idol and a new hero of Ukraine, which was used for political confrontation with the northern neighbor and as an instrument of pressure on the world community.