Taras Romanovych Kozak (; born 6 April 1972, Sokilnyky, Pustomyty Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Ukrainian politician, state servant, businessman and media proprietor, and a close associate of the pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk. He was elected in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a People's Deputy of the 8th convocation for the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc party. In 2019, he was elected a People's Deputy of Ukraine of 9th convocation for the now banned pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life party. In June 2019, Kozak created Novyny Holdings (“News holding”), which includes the , and 112 Ukraine TV channels, which have been shut down under accusations of hosting Russian propaganda. On 2 February 2021 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on Kozak, with the reason given for the sanctions being that according to the Security Service of Ukraine investigation, Kozak controlled a group of coal mines in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions not under government control whose profits contributed to the financing of terrorism, as well as being implicated in the use of profits from the Samara-Western Direction oil product pipeline to fund the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. On 11 May 2021 the Prosecutor General of Ukraine accused Kozak of treason and attempted looting of national resources in (Russian annexed, but internationally recognised as Ukrainian) Crimea; he is believed to be in Belarus and the Security Service of Ukraine received permission to detain Kozak on 20 May 2021. On 20 January 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned Kozak for acting under the direction of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents and helping “to prepare to take over the government of Ukraine and to control Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with an occupying Russian force." In January 2023 Kozak was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship and his term as People's Deputy of Ukraine was terminated. Biography In 1993–2003, Kozak worked in the State Tax Administration and in 2003-2010 he worked in the State Customs Service. One of Kozak's colleagues in the Lviv tax office was Serhiy Medvedchuk , Viktor Medvedchuk's brother. In 2005 Kozak was a member of political party Russko-Ukrainskiy Soyuz that ran for parliament as part of the Natalia Vitrenko Bloc. In 2010 he became a deputy in the Lviv Oblast council The same year he became deputy head of the NGO "Legal State Center", this organization