Karpachova attended Kyiv University and completed a post-graduate course of the Academy of Social Sciences in Moscow (1991).

She was elected a deputy in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) in 1994 for the 28th single-member electoral district in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as independent, representing Alushta.

Soon after her election, she was appointed deputy head of Verkhovna Rada committee for human rights, national minorities and international relations.

Karpachova has headed a number of governmental and parliamentary delegations of Ukraine at international and European conferences on human rights issues.

In 1995, she coordinated parliamentary hearings for Ukraine's ratification process of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.