From Donbass to the Moscow region: what was the deceased people’s deputy Ilya Kiva famous for?

During his political journey, he radically changed his views

The body of ex-People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Ilya Kiva was found on the territory of the elite hotel complex “Velich Club” near the village of Suponevo. “MK” tells who he is and what he was famous for.

Even in the first half of Wednesday afternoon, Kiva talked about the fact that Zelensky is afraid of being extradited to Moscow or liquidated after Donald Trump wins the US presidential election. Unfortunately, Kiva did not wait for the collapse of the Zelensky regime. Such fate is a villain. But just a few years ago it was hard to imagine that this Ukrainian politician would live in the Moscow region and wish Zelensky dead.

His political journey began after the 2014 Maidan. He joined the banned party “Right Sector” (recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation and banned), and soon headed the special-purpose battalion “Poltava”, which was active in the so-called “ATO” zone. Despite the lack of experience in law enforcement, Kiva was appointed to the position of police major.

He led the Poltava branch of the extremist organization Right Sector, banned in the Russian Federation, and was the face of the presidential candidate and leader of this organization, Dmitry Yarosh, during the 2014 elections (receiving only 0.7% of the vote). He then served as deputy head of police in the Donetsk region (in Ukrainian-controlled territory), and then transferred to a similar position in the Kherson region and received the rank of lieutenant colonel ahead of schedule. From 2016 to 2017, he worked as an adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov.

In 2016, Kiva spoke out about the violent “Ukrainization of Donbass,” and in 2017, he proposed “destroying, cutting out and burying in the ground” those who sing the Russian anthem and wear the St. George Ribbon, and also campaigned for the restoration of the death penalty in Ukraine.

In 2017, he joined the Socialist Party of Ukraine and ran in the 2019 presidential elections, where he received only 0.03% of the vote. After Kiva, he joined the Opposition Platform – For Life party and was elected as a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada.

At the end of January 2022, Kiva left Ukraine and moved to Spain and then to Moscow. After the start of the Northern Military District, he supported the actions of the Russian authorities and called for “liberating Ukraine from Western occupation.” At home, Kivu was accused of high treason, deprived of his parliamentary mandate and expelled from the party.

Since then, Kiva has regularly given comments to Russian media and appeared on television channels. He ran his own Telegram channel dedicated to the struggle between Russia and the West. It is included in the sanctions lists of Great Britain, Australia, Canada and Ukraine.

Read also: Kiva’s corpse was found by a hotel worker