Russia detains businessman Amirkhanian on suspicion of murdering Kyva

Araik Amirkhanyan is suspected of involvement in the murder of former MP Illia Kyva

A court in the Moscow region has placed former Ukravtodor «contractor» Araik Amirkhanian under arrest, whom Russian law enforcement officials consider an accomplice in the murder of former MP Illia Kyva.

This was reported by the Russian news agency TASS on 16 September, citing law enforcement agencies.

It should be noted that Ilya Kiva was shot dead in December 2023 in the village of Suponevo, Moscow region. His body was found in a park. Later, Ukraine said that the former MP was killed in a special SBU operation.

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Araik Amirkhanian's name first appeared in the case of the ex-politician's murder in June 2025. According to Mash, Amirkhanian could have passed on information about Ilya Kiva's whereabouts to the Ukrainian special services.

At the same time, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Amirkhanian is already in custody in Russia, in particular on suspicion of bribery.

In addition, the businessman's company, LLC «SK DORLIDER», which was engaged in the construction of roads near Moscow, has a debt of more than 85 million rubles. Since 2022, the company has been in bankruptcy proceedings and its accounts have been seized.

How is Araik Amirkhanian connected to Mykolaiv region?

Until 2021, Amirkhanian's name was repeatedly mentioned in scandals. He was repeatedly accused of blocking road tenders and obstructing the implementation of the «Big Construction». In 2020, «Ukravtodor» stated that he and his armed accomplices had broken into the building looking for the then head of the agency, Oleksandr Kubrakov. Before that, he had illegally tried to break into the office of the Road Service in Odesa region.

At the same time, the NABU published recordings of conversations between Andrii Maksymenko, the former head of the Road Service in Mykolaiv region, and representatives of Amirkhanian's company, in which he demanded «kickbacks» on the repair of the H-11 «Dnipro-Mykolaiv highway». The chief road builder of Mykolaiv region was then suspected of taking a bribe.

After Maksymenko's detention in June 2020, NikVesti wrote that Araik Amirkhanian was seen in the building of the Mykolaiv Regional Road Administration. Serhii Sikorskyi, deputy head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration's infrastructure department, explained that he had met with him to find out when his companies would be able to start work in the region.

In 2021, Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted the National Security and Defence Council's decision to impose sanctions on a number of individuals and legal entities. Amirkhanyan was among them. Later in June, the SBU announced that one of Amirkhanian's companies, Pervomaisk Special Quarry, had caused more than 280 million hryvnias in damage to the state. According to the SBU, the quarry's management had been illegally extracting granite for two years after the relevant state licences expired.

In 2024, Mykolaiv-based Nikcenter reported that Amirakhanyan had lost 120 million hryvnias worth of assets in Ukraine after the sanctions were imposed.