Klym Liiv

Klym Liiv was a Ukrainian basketball player and youth coach who spent more than twenty years in the sport, including seasons in the Ukrainian Higher League, before serving in the defence of Ukraine. His death at the front was announced on 9 October 2026 by Stanislav Medvedenko, the Ukrainian forward who won two NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001 and 2002 and who had known Liiv since his childhood in the game.

Liiv came to basketball as a young child at Vedmedi, the Kyiv youth basketball programme associated with Medvedenko. With the Vedmedi Kyiv team he won the All-Ukrainian Youth Basketball League three times, and he was called up to Ukraine's cadet and under 16 national teams for international tournaments.

As a senior player he represented a number of clubs. He played in the Higher League for Lvivska Politekhnika, Self Made and Push Team, appeared for the reserve side of BC Kyiv, and played for Sarny in the First League. After his playing career he worked for a time as a coach of young players, passing on the game to a new generation in the same way he had learned it as a boy. Reports of his death summed up his life in the sport as more than twenty years given to basketball.

In his final years Liiv served with Ukraine's defence forces during the Russian invasion. Shortly before his death he had received a state award, according to Medvedenko. Details of his unit, the award and the place and exact date of his death have not been published.

Medvedenko announced the news on Facebook, writing that Liiv had loved life and always took the most from it, that he had come to Vedmedi as a small child, had worked briefly as a coach and had spent his last years defending Ukraine with a weapon in his hands. The news was reported by Champion, NV, Espreso, Censor.net and other Ukrainian outlets. His age, birthplace and family details have not been made public, and no funeral arrangements had been reported.

Liiv is one of many Ukrainian athletes and coaches who have been killed since Russia's full scale invasion began in 2022. He is remembered in Ukrainian basketball as a youth champion, a Higher League player and a coach of children who chose to serve his country.