Education
In 1978 Kikhtenko graduated the Frunze College of General Command (Omsk). In 1991 he graduated the faculty of intelligence of the Frunze Military Academy (Moscow).
leader military statesman commander
In 1978 Kikhtenko graduated the Frunze College of General Command (Omsk). In 1991 he graduated the faculty of intelligence of the Frunze Military Academy (Moscow).
He is a career officer of the Internal Troops of Ukraine and a General of Army of Ukraine (2008). He served in the army since 1974 first in the Soviet Army and then in the Ukrainian Army. After fall of the Soviet Union, Kikhtenko continued to serve for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and was a chief of the Internal Troops administration in Zaporizhia Oblast.
Since February of 2005 he served as a Commander of the Internal Troops of Ukraine.
After election of Viktor Yanukovych as President of Ukraine in 2010, Kikhtenko was fired and retired from military service. On 10 October 2014 newly elected President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko appointed Kikhtenko as a governor of Donetsk Oblast.
In 2014 he also topped the party list of the Strength and Honor party for the Ukrainian parliamentary election. On June 11, 2015 Kikhtenko was fired as a governor and replaced by Pavlo Zhebrivskyi.
During the presidential period of Viktor Yushchenko, in 2007-2008 and 2010 Kikhtenko unprecedentedly was a member of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.