2013–2017 Kvya's political career began in 2013, when he unsuccessfully tried to get elected into the
Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) in a by-election of the
2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election in electoral district number 223 (
Shevchenkivskyi District, Kyiv) as a self-nominated candidate. In 2014, Kyva became a police
major (
майор міліції) and was appointed commander of his native town's battalion, "Poltavshchyna". He became the leader of
Right Sector's Eastern division stretching from Poltava to Donetsk, and was the representative of
Dmytro Yarosh's
2014 presidential election campaign. When the law on the reformed
National Police of Ukraine entered into force, all employees of the ministry were obliged to undergo re-certification, but Kyva did not do this. Kyva expressed support for the invasion, claiming "the Ukrainian people need liberation" and that "
Ukrainians,
Belarusians,
Russians are
one people." One month before the invasion, Kyva had left for Spain, before moving to Russia. On 3 March 2022, Kyva was expelled from the party and faction of Opposition Platform — For Life. On 6 March 2022, Prosecutor General
Iryna Venediktova announced that Kyva was being charged with
high treason, as well as infringing on Ukraine's territorial integrity, taking part in Russian war propaganda, and illegal weapons possession. On 15 March 2022, the Verkhovna Rada deprived Kyva of his mandate as a People's Deputy. On 17 April 2022, he wrote about a nuclear strike on Ukraine on his
Telegram account, stating: "Zelensky, his entourage and Western curators, are most afraid of a Russian preemptive strike, weapons of mass destruction. This is what can put an end to today's confrontation, not only with the Ukrainian authorities, but with the entire West". On 18 April 2022, it was reported that Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations had opened a case of treason against Kyva for involvement in an illegal arrangement with a general of the Russian Armed Forces. On 21 April 2022, in an open letter to Russian president
Vladimir Putin, Kyva applied for
Russian citizenship and political asylum. Based on the analysis of videos published on his Telegram account, Ukrainian investigation platform concluded on 20 June 2022 that Kyva had settled in the cottage town of Agalarov Estate, near the village
Pokrovskoye in
Moscow Oblast. On 13 November 2023, Kyva was given a 14-year jail sentence in absentia by the
Lychakivskyi District Court of
Lviv for high treason and calling publicly for the occupation of Ukraine. In Russia, Kyva frequently criticised Ukrainian authorities online and on Russian state television talkshows. == Assassination ==