He lives in Kyiv now. His parents are both Ukrainian. They moved from other parts of Ukraine to Crimea. More than a few Ukranians did. He posted this to his Instagram, “Donetsk is Ukraine. Luhansk is Ukraine. Zaporizhzhia is Ukraine. Crimea is Ukraine. Kherson is Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine.” One can wonder why he’s not in the trenches now.
In 2021, Usyk, who grew up in Crimea, was criticised for appearing in a documentary about the Pechersk Lavra, the ancient Kyiv monastery then inhabited by monks loyal to the Moscow patriarchate. The series was presented by Oksana Marchenko, the wife of the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. The couple, who are friends of Putin, were placed under sanctions in Ukraine in 2021 for allegedly financing terrorism. They now live in Russia.