YouTuber Who Tried To Give Indigenous Tribe Diet Coke Now Facing Jail
An American YouTuber who gained attention for traveling through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is now facing possible jail time in India after illegally attempting to contact one of the world's most-isolated Indigenous tribes.
Police in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands said Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, posed a serious threat to the safety and well-being of the Sentinelese people, after he sailed to North Sentinel Island in March 2025 and tried to attract the tribe's attention, despite strict laws banning any approach to the island from outsiders.
Contact with outsiders is strictly prohibited by the law to protect the islanders’ indigenous way of life and the safety of visitors. Police added that Polyakov had planned the trip over several days and deliberately violated long-standing protections for the tribe.
Polyakov, an extreme travel content creator who describes himself as a “Neo-Orientalist,” was arrested in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India, after local fishermen spotted him and alerted authorities.
Polyakov has since been charged with entering a prohibited tribal reserve under Indian law.
The case marks a dramatic turn for the YouTuber, who had recently been posting footage from high-risk destinations. On one of his last adventures, Polyakov toured Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where he filmed himself trying on Mughal-era helmets, waving swords and firing guns.
Who Are the Sentinelese People?
Authorities say his latest attempt went much further. North Sentinel Island, located in the Bay of Bengal, has been off-limits to outsiders for decades.
The Sentinelese tribe, believed to number between a few hundred people, is estimated to have lived on the island for as long as 60,000 years, having virtually no contact with modern civilization.
Visiting the island is illegal within a 3-mile radius, a restriction designed to protect the tribe both culturally and physically.
The Sentinelese are known to react violently to outsiders using bows, arrows and spears, and Indian authorities strictly enforce the exclusion zone to prevent contact and the spread of infectious diseases to the group, who will have little immunity to diseases considered low risk in other parts of the world.
Police said Polyakov spent around an hour on the island's beach attempting to draw the Sentinelese out by blowing a whistle. When no one appeared, he reportedly left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut on the shore as offerings and then returned to his boat.
The waters surrounding North Sentinel Island are regularly patrolled by the Indian Navy.
The legal framework enforcing the ban dates back to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation of 1956, which prohibits any approach closer than 5 kilometers [3 miles] to protect the Sentinelese from “mainland” diseases.
American Killed on the Island in 2018
The dangers of such contact attempts were underscored in 2018, when American missionary John Allen Chau was killed after illegally traveling to the island in an effort to convert the tribe to Christianity.
Chau was taken close to the island by local fishermen and made multiple attempts to land over several days. The fishermen later told authorities they saw members of the tribe burying his body on the beach.
Despite that widely publicized incident, police say Polyakov still chose to make the journey. His legal proceedings are ongoing, with Indian authorities stressing that the laws protecting the Sentinelese are designed to ensure the tribe is left entirely alone.
Newsweek's reporters and editors used Martyn, our Al assistant, to help produce this story. Learn more about Martyn.
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This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 9:38 AM.