A former Ukrainian opposition party lawmaker who was declared a ‘traitor’ by the Zelensky government, was been shot dead yesterday in a park in Odintsovo region in the southwest of Moscow. Multiple sources have told western news agencies, including the AFP and others, that Kiev’s SBU security services have carried out the assassination.
Interestingly, this comes at a time when Zelensky’s position as leader is at its weakest ever…
IMAGE: Ukrainian Defense Intelligence official Andrii Yusov commented on the killing of former MP commented on the death of Illia Kyva.
Russian law enforcement have launched an official probe into his death near a private estate in Odintsovo located outside central Moscow.
Ukrainian media outlets appear to have celebrated the event, and do not appear to be reticent in their approval of the assassination, and even vowed to continue targeting their political enemies. The website Oboz.ua said:
Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, commented on the news on the evening of December 6 on the TV show “UnitedNews“. When the host asked him if Kyva was really dead, Yusov congratulated Ukrainians and “all good people in the free world” on the Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“And yes, we can confirm that Kyva is ‘done’. The same fate will befall other traitors to Ukraine, as well as the Putin regime’s henchmen,“ the intelligence officer replied.
In a related development, politician Oleg Popov was killed in a car bombing in the Donbass region’s city of Luhansk con Wednesday, according to reports, although Ukraine has not yet commented on the terrorist attack.
The Financial Times reports…
A former Ukraine lawmaker who had been charged with treason was assassinated on Wednesday near Moscow in an operation carried out by Ukrainian security service agents, according to officials.
Ilya Kiva, 46, a proponent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and longtime opponent of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, fled to Russia last year after facing treason charges and being stripped of his mandate as a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on February 24 2022, Kiva wrote on social media that “the Ukrainian people need liberation” and that “Ukrainians, Belarusians [and] Russians are one people”.
Two Ukrainian officials with direct knowledge of the killing told the Financial Times that the SBU security service had carried out the operation. “The liquidation of a top traitor, collaborator and propagandist Ilya Kiva is a special operation of the SBU,” one of the officials said. Kiva had been killed with “small arms”, the official added.
The killing is the latest in a series of assassinations against Ukrainian defectors and Russians involved in Moscow’s invasion, and come at the same time as attacks deep inside Russia believed to have been carried out by the SBU.
While the agency’s policy is not to take credit for the strikes, it has on some occasions claimed responsibility, as it did with the October attack on Russia’s illegally built bridge connecting the country to occupied Crimea.
Kiva, a political chameleon known for his gruff voice and quarrelsome demeanour, started as a member of the Ukrainian far-right, moved on to being a police official and unsuccessfully ran for president in 2019 as a member of the Socialist Party of Ukraine. An avid social media user noted for his violent and graphic posts, he frequently published anti-Ukrainian propaganda, calling Kyiv’s leadership “Nazis” and demanding Zelenskyy resign.
In an interview with Russian television prior to the invasion, he alleged that his country was “enslaved and brought to its knees by the west, permeated by Nazism, and it has no future. Ukraine needs help. The Ukrainian people need liberation.”
After his electoral loss he joined the pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life, a group headed by Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk, who was handed over to Moscow in a prisoner swap last year. In March 2022, Ukraine’s parliament stripped Kiva of his seat and the prosecutor-general filed treason charges against him…
Read more from the Financial Times here.
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