Kiva Ilya Vladimirovich
Official biography
Born on June 02, 1977 in Poltava.
He studied at the gymnasium №6.
Until 2003, he studied at the Poltava Petroleum Geological Exploration College, majoring in Maintenance and Repair of Oil and Gas Industries, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Later he studied at V.G. Korolenko Poltava State University. He graduated from V.G. Korolenko Poltava State University.
From 2005 to the summer of 2008, he worked as a director and chief accountant at UkrSvyazMontazh LLC.
In 2008, he was a process engineer at the Donetsk Railways.
In 2009, he graduated from the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University with a degree in law. In 2009, he graduated from the Mudryi National Law University with a degree in law.
In 2010, he was appointed head of the Novozolotarivka washing and steaming station of the Donetsk Railways.
In 2010-2011, he worked as Deputy Head of the Department of Repair and Construction of the Large Ring Road of the Road Service in Kyiv Region of the State Road Service of Ukraine.
In 2011, he worked as Deputy Head of the Department for Consumer Protection in Poltava Region.
In 2014, he was promoted to the rank of police major and headed the Poltava Special Police Patrol Service Battalion, which was created on the basis of the Poltava Battalion, Kremenchuk Company and Myrnyi Company.
In December 2014, by order of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Ilya Kiva was appointed deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Donetsk region.
In June 2015, he became the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kherson region with an early promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
In June 2015, he became the head of the “Union of ATO Veterans” in Poltava.
From October 22, 2015, to May 19, 2016, he worked as the head of the Department for Combating Drug Crimes of the National Police of Ukraine. As part of his work, he hosted the program “Traffic with Kiva” on the NewsOne TV channel.
From October 2016 to June 2017, he worked as an advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
In October 2017, he was elected Chairman of the Trade Unions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
In 2017, he graduated from the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine with a master’s degree in law.
He is currently a member of the Ukrainian Parliament from the Opposition Bloc for Life party.
There is virtually no information about Kiva’s family, wife and children, as well as any mention of his business.Now, in order.
While working as the deputy head of the Department for Consumer Protection in Poltava region, the current MP from the OPFL, Ilya Kiva, was convicted under Part 3 of Article 368 (8 to 12 years with restriction of the right to hold managerial positions) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for bribery and was amnestied under very dubious circumstances.
According to the text of the verdict, Kiva committed the crime in 2011, extorting a bribe from businessman Ihor Horbatenko. The department fined the businessman UAH 200,000, but Kyva offered to reduce the fine to UAH 2,000 and pay off the bribe for USD 1,500. Horbatenko was supposed to give this money in two installments to Kiva’s brother, Dmytro. Horbatenko appealed to law enforcement and was detained while handing over the second part of the money to Dmytro Kiva. At the same time, Illya Kiva was also detained.
During the hearing, the court took into account mitigating circumstances when making its decision. One of them is a certificate from the Poltava Regional Psychiatric Hospital, which states that Kiva was being treated with a diagnosis of «consequences of a closed head injury with psychopathization of the personality.» At the time of the trial, Kiva had a second group of disability and a «painful condition».
The Zhovtnevyi District Court of Poltava found Kiva guilty of taking a bribe in a particularly large amount and sentenced him to a fine of UAH 10 thousand. For obvious reasons, Kiva himself did not appeal against the court’s decision… because a fine is better than a real term. That is, thanks to all the mitigating circumstances, in particular, a certificate of «ill health,» Ilya Kiva received a fine for a serious crime that could have resulted in eight years in prison.
Later, in 2014, the court re-examined Kiva’s case due to newly discovered circumstances and issued a new decision under a different article, which allowed Kiva to be amnestied and declared not guilty. A suspicious coincidence just before the future politician and human rights activist’s career took off. After the 2014 Maidan, in which Ilya Volodymyrovych took the most active part, his rapid rise as a police officer began. Thus, in September 2014, the Minister of Internal Affairs signed Order No. 1796 on the promotion of Kiva to the rank of police lieutenant, but later, right in the document, the rank of lieutenant was crossed out and corrected to major.
After that, Ilya Kiva became the battalion commander. The Poltavshchyna battalion, which was headed by Kyva, partially left the service, and picketed in Kyiv to remove Kyva from command. The fighters’ motivation was simple: Kyva had a criminal record and had never been to the ATO area, so he had no moral right to be a unit commander in the first place. The battalion itself was later disbanded. Kyva explained that the bulk of the personnel consisted of «cops» who wanted to stay in the trenches or at checkpoints, even though they knew they were going to a difficult sector… and commented: «Everyone goes to war to die…». At the same time, a number of reliable sources indicate that Kiva had sophisticated methods of sobering up and punishing the soldiers of the unit entrusted to him, tying them to a post for several days with a minimum of drinking, which, in turn, also became a cause for outrage among the security forces.
During his tenure at the Donetsk regional police department, Kiva was constantly engaged in PR, inflating his importance and value to the maximum. Thus, while serving as deputy chief of the Kherson police, Kyva positioned himself as a great fighter against smuggling: «This is a whole corruption system, which includes various structures, which was built back in the days of Yanukovych. This is the customs system — people who have been lustrated to date — they continue to control customs flows, create brokerage firms.» Kyva constantly emphasized his own honesty and integrity, as well as attempts to bribe him to help with smuggling, as well as conflicts and confusion within the National Police of Ukraine: «They offered 250-300 thousand (hryvnias) for 10 tons of meat. There were 10 cars passing through at night. This does not require any operation, it takes an hour and a half to pass. Kurakhov’s post: what was not transported. Weapons in one direction, weapons in the other direction, there were clashes. There were times when we had to point weapons at each other.»
Kyva paid special attention to the topic of corruption in the National Police of Ukraine related to smuggling in the ATO area. He constantly emphasized the acuteness of the problem of illegal «shadow» business organized by the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine: «Money buys individuals, not the whole system. Eight months ago, I left the ATO zone, and all this time I have been paying attention to stopping smuggling flows. Volnovakha, Kurakhove, Artemivsk direction, Zaitseve. I faced threats then.»
According to Kiva, he was threatened by a senior National Police official for his activity in covering the smuggling situation: «A general came to me. He said that I would not be there if I did not calm down my ardor in the fight against smuggling,» Kiva said. «This general is no longer in the law enforcement system. When such a general says such things, who is interested in this issue?»
While holding a position at the Donetsk regional police department, Kyva allegedly did not work well with his then boss, Abroskin, for reasons that are not clear. Kiva accused the latter of covering up smuggling flows from the uncontrolled territories. At the same time, Kiva himself was repeatedly accused of organizing smuggling schemes. Thus, according to the explanation of one of the commanders of the 28th separate mechanized brigade, during the detention of several trucks with contraband in January 2015, it was Ilya Kiva who, with the support of MP Dmytro Lubinets, came to take back the cargo. To avoid a conflict, the SBU had to be involved in the situation.
Since his appointment to the Donetsk regional police department, Mr. Kiva has been actively implementing the Myrotvorets project database in his operational work. Anton Gerashchenko is said to be one of the founders of this database and that Arsen Avakov was its main patron. This database was compromised and became the subject of a number of scandalous events: from leaking information that threatens people’s safety to adding people to it who are not acceptable to the authorities.
Kiva also claims credit for the evacuation of civilians from Debaltseve in the ATO zone, or rather refers to 1,500 evacuees. This is a questionable fact, especially if we take into account the fact that Yuriy Shcherbatenko, a former adviser to the former governor of Donetsk region, Kikhtenko, participated in the evacuation. In his comments on the situation, Shcherbatenko said: «To take people out, we gathered buses from factories and enterprises. A lot of people were taken out by volunteers. Employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were also working there. We did not see the police there. And we would have known for sure if they had taken out 1,500 people.» But despite all this, it was Kiva who was honored and awarded the extraordinary rank of police lieutenant colonel for these actions! And to confirm his merits, in conditions when even bloggers and activists did not have time to take a few shots, Kiva has his own answer: «Look at my Facebook, there are a lot of photos from Debaltseve. And there are videos on the Internet. Just type in the search engine: «Kiva. Debaltseve». Although volunteers from Artemivsk who participated in the evacuation of people from Debaltseve and Vuhlehirsk find such comments ironic…
In his position as a drug crime fighter, Kiva proved to be a very active and incompetent employee who has nothing to do and is interested in participating in the blockade of Crimea. In fact, in this position, Kiva was entrusted with the role and task of dismantling the drug unit and creating pressure for the owners of certain businesses (nightclubs, pharmacies) in order to receive payment for «loyalty» in the future. The demonstration action alone, or as the department’s operatives called it, a special operation in the Closer club, as well as Kiva’s systematic raids on pharmacies with subsequent posts on social media, are worth a lot. It is worth noting that a number of drugs were indeed seized from individuals in the said nightclub, the presence and actions of which are difficult to link to the club’s activities, while a number of visitors were physically assaulted by the special operation.
In his fight against drug addiction, Kiva sometimes went to the point of absurdity, so in the episode of February 29, 2016, two invited drug addicts, provoked by the program host, began to make drugs from improvised means on the air of the TV channel. At that moment, Ilya Kiva called police officers to the studio, who arrested the guests.
2016 — re-certification in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which Kyva refused to undergo, including a polygraph test. When asked if Kyva was ready to take a polygraph, in an interview with a TV channel, he said: «Of course! Wow! Is the polygraph ready to test me?» This also did not prevent Kiva from being promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the police in late August, in violation of Article 35 of the Regulations on the Service…. But a month later, he was expelled from the ranks of law enforcement, although according to his version, he left of his own free will. In total, in 410 days, Kiva was able to receive, not earn, the rank of colonel without taking an oath!
It is worth noting that all positions can hardly be called lucrative; rather, they require a tremendous investment of effort on the part of the person holding them.
Below, we will simply list a number of facts from the political and public life of Ilya Vladimirovich.
Ilya Kiva is the head of the All-Ukrainian Union of ATO Veterans, a non-governmental organization. He was the head of the Poltava branch of the Right Sector and the regional leader of this movement in eastern Ukraine. Kiva also systematically used ATO veterans and employees of the State Security Service to participate in rallies and demonstrations, and sometimes to disperse such actions.
In one of his interviews, Kiva openly admits that he even used the administrative resource to install the number «8888» on his girlfriend’s car.
Kiva is extremely intolerant of the LGBT community. He quoted the Bible, calling for radical measures.
There was a scandal over this with the participation of Ombudsman Valeria Lutkovska, who petitioned Avakov to dismiss Kiva.
In the summer of 2017, one of the MPs of Ukraine, Serhiy Kaplin, accused Kiva of having a mental disorder — schizophrenia (a psychotic personality disorder (or complex of disorders), during which emotional reactions and thought processes disintegrate) on social media. In this regard, the relevant medical certificates were published stating that Kiva had a disability. On the basis of this information, Kaplin appealed to the SBU with a request to restrict Kiva’s ability to use firearms. As a result, Kiva was stripped of his military rank.
Kiva systematically established ties with representatives of the criminal world. During his service in the Donetsk regional police department, Kiva became friends with Vova Vuhaty, who was involved in the gambling business during the Yanukovych era. Kyva created the «Liberation» prisoner rehabilitation foundation, which later changed its name and slightly changed its focus, but Kyva always showed sympathy for prison philosophy and criminals. Kyva also allowed himself to express sympathy for the use of soft drugs as an alternative to alcohol.
In September 2016, an arson attack took place in the building of the headquarters of the Inter TV channel. The channel’s management accused Ilya Kiva of participating in the arson. At that time, a group of activists took part in a protest and a fire broke out after clashes. A journalistic investigation revealed that Kiva himself was among the protesters, as well as activist of the Brotherhood party Oleksiy Serdyuk and criminal authority Oleksiy Kopyshynsky (nicknamed «Lekha» or «Kachok»).
The journalists named the organizer of the action as the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, but the latter responded by accusing the TV channel of provoking the attack on its headquarters on its own. In April 2016, Kyva became involved in another heated discussion of its actions. It was due to the fact that police officer Kyva, contrary to the requirements of Ukrainian legislation, contrary to job descriptions and measures for the safe handling of firearms, walked on the Lviv-Kyiv train with a pistol without a holster, tucked into his belt.
Roman Sinitsyn, a member of the People’s Front volunteer association, was the first to comment on this phenomenon on his Facebook page. Later, photos of Kiva, who had already left the train but continued to move around Kyiv with his weapon without a holster, appeared online. On the air of 112 Ukraine TV channel, Ilya Kiva explained his behavior by saying that he did not see anything unreasonable in the fact that a police officer carries service weapons in public places, despite comments about violations of the procedure of carrying: «I am at the point where I am fighting against the evil that can strike at any moment. And the presence of a firearm in my possession is approved by the laws of Ukraine. And if someone’s inflamed brain cannot adequately perceive the situation regarding the presence of a police officer with a service weapon, it is very bad. What can I say… a brutal policeman is in danger at any moment, or… the law is not written. By the way, Kiva appeared on one of the broadcasts, bringing with him a folding carbine based on a Kalashnikov rifle, violating all the rules of safe handling of firearms during the broadcast.
In 2017, Kyva became the head of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, which has not been represented in the Verkhovna Rada for almost 10 years. And as the leader of this political force, he keeps in touch with his Russian counterpart, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky. In his correspondence with Zhirinovsky, Kyva allowed himself to criticize the Honcharuk government in a maternal manner.
2018 — Kyva managed to accuse the journalist Kateryna Handziuk, who died as a result of the attack, of involvement in embezzlement from the city budget, and in October of the same year, Kyva threatened public activist Serhiy Sternenko with death in the presence of law enforcement officers: «We will bury you, activists, in the ground.»
In January 2020, Kyva got into a fight with Mykhailo Maiman in a Kyiv restaurant, as a result of which, in his typical manner, he tried to switch from the aggressor and instigator to the role of the victim, although all the facts are clearly visible on the restaurant’s surveillance video
Kiva creates uncomfortable situations for himself at every turn and demonstrates his shortsightedness even in the smallest things. In an interview on one of the TV channels, Kiva said that he spends at least 16 thousand UAH per month on a salary of 10 thousand. The host took him by surprise with a question: «Where does he get another 6 thousand per month?». Thus, ostentatious modesty does not always play into the hands of the host, given even Kiva’s obvious understatement of his monthly expenses.
During the meetings, Kiva continues to do anything but actually defend his stated civic position on the rostrum…
Not so long ago, Ilya Kiva was spotted doing some delicate business during a meeting in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. After answering the phone, Kiva said he was: «just adjusted his penis,» and by coincidence, the caller was a model from Odesa.
For Kiva, it is even within the bounds of what is permissible to appear at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine wearing a Joker mask.
Kiva’s 2017 declaration lists a 49m2 apartment in Kyiv, a 43m2 apartment in use, a 394m2 garage, and a 394m2 slurry pit. In addition, Kiva owns a 1480m2 plot of land in the village of Sosnivka, Poltava region. As income from the main place of work, which is listed as the same Kiva, the declarant recorded UAH 143 thousand. To put it mildly, it is strange that the same Kiva Ilya Volodymyrovych listed UAH 1 million as his assets in the same 2017 as an organization.
In 2018, Kiva’s declaration indicated the same real estate, no income from his place of work, and assets placed with himself in the amount of UAH 680 thousand.
In 2019, Kiva’s affairs went up sharply. He declared the use of a Toyota Landcruiser 200 worth UAH 2.2 million, income from renting out property worth UAH 1.24 million, a salary of UAH 148 thousand, interest on a bank deposit of UAH 10 thousand, and UAH 685 thousand of assets, 260 of which have already been deposited in a bank account.
Thus, over the year, Kiva’s wealth has increased by almost UAH 1.5 million and a brand new car, and this is only according to official data.
In 2020, Kiva managed to register a Rolex watch worth UAH 392 thousand and a cash gift from his brother for the same amount.
To be more specific, in July 2020, Kyva registered income of UAH 1.2 million, allegedly received as a result of renting out a sludge pit (used for waste during beet processing).
Kiva also indicated a car in which he travels accompanied by private security, which does not appear in the databases of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and which was allegedly provided to Kiva by his brother… In fact, the pit that Kiva leased is no longer in use and is overgrown with weeds. Immediately after the lease, Kiva sold this object to the same LLC «Ukrvyazmontazh», where he once worked as a director. He did not specify the amount of the sale. Kiva explains the origin of the car by the fact that it was given to him for use by his brother, who has been living in England since 2002.
It should be noted that Ilya Volodymyrovych was one of the initiators of the petition to the Constitutional Court to remove liability for false declaration and e-declaration itself. This provision was reflected in the decision of the Constitutional Court of October 28, 2020, and now all cases of false declaration should be closed.
This includes the NACP’s investigation into Kiva’s declarations.
All of Kiva’s statements during his tenure in the law enforcement system were not reflected in any criminal cases or high-profile detentions. This trend continues in the political arena. Apart from systematic idleness and shocking members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ilya Vladimirovich does nothing… except, of course, loud statements, intimidation of Ukrainian citizens and coy sycophancy to colleagues in the Russian ideology.
And let’s not forget that in one of his speeches, Kiva directly stated: «…this is why we entered politics, why we gained your trust, why we gained the trust to fight against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.» Later, Kiva did not refute this statement…