Ukrainian military intelligence is celebrating the killing of former Socialist Party of Ukraine leader Illya Kyva near Moscow on Wednesday.
Kiev warned that a similar fate awaited any other “traitors.”
Kyva, who had opposed official government persecution of Russian speakers in Ukraine, fled to Russia shortly after Moscow’s invasion. He was found dead this week with gunshot wounds to the head in the village of Suponevo, just west of the Russian capital Moscow.
Earlier this year, Kyva was given a 14-year jail sentence by Ukrainian authorities for high treason. The reason the Ukrainian government gave for his jail sentence was that he allegedly had called for the Kiev government to surrender after Russian troops entered the country in February of 2022.
Since he had already fled Ukraine he was convicted in absentia.
Since fleeing to Moscow, Kyva has appeared in talk shows on Russian television during which he criticized the Ukrainian leadership, particularly its president, Vladimir Zelensky, and right wingers in the Ukrainian military leadership who had staged attacks for many years against tens of thousands of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
Follows numerous other attacks
Kyva’s killing follows numerous other attacks, including the killings of critics of the Kiev government.
Lugansk regional parliament deputy Oleg Popov was killed in a car bombing in Ukraine’s eastern Lugansk region, also on Wednesday, local officials said.
A few weeks ago another Lugansk regional deputy, Mikhail Filiponenko, was killed in a similar attack for which Kiev claimed responsibility.
In August 2022, Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologist Alexander Dugin, died in a car bomb explosion outside Moscow.
In April, Vladlen Tatarsky, a prominent Russian military blogger, was killed by a bomb planted in his belongings.
In May, Zakhar Prilepin, a Russian nationalist writer who had fought in Ukraine, was the victim of a car bombing. He was reported to have been wounded, but not killed.
And in October, another opponent of the Kiev government, a Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Crimea, Oleg Tsaryov, was shot and wounded in an attack there.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, Andriy Yusov, told Ukrainian TV: “Yes, we can confirm Kyva is no more.
“This fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine and puppets of Putin’s regime.”
Russia’s state investigative committee has opened a probe into Kyva’s killing.
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