Ukrainian traitor MP is assassinated in Moscow by Kyiv hit squad 18 months after he urged Putin to use weapons of mass destruction

• A source in Ukraine’s defence sector told AFP that its SBU security services had orchestrated the assassination of Illia Kyva

A pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician who defected to Russia was found dead outside Moscow on Wednesday, Russian news agencies reported citing local emergency services.

A source in Ukraine’s defence sector told AFP that its SBU security services had orchestrated the assassination of Illia Kyva, a former Ukrainian lawmaker who was kicked out of parliament and defected to Russia weeks after Moscow launched its military offensive last year.

In April, Kiva urged  Putin to use weapons of mass destruction against his own country amid growing fears that Russia could resort to using nukes. 

Ilya Kiva, an opposition politician banned from parliament for supporting Russia’s invasion, posted the appeal to his Telegram channel – just a day after Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Putin could go nuclear.

Underneath the image of a nuclear explosion, Kiva wrote: ‘REMEMBER!!! – THEY ARE AFRAID AND RESPECT ONLY POWER!!!

Ilya Kiva, an opposition politician banned from parliament for supporting Putin’s invasion, has called on Russia to use weapons of mass destruction (above)

‘Zelensky, his entourage and Western curators, are most afraid of a [Russian] pre-emptive strike [with] weapons of mass destruction.

‘This is what can put an end to today’s confrontation, not only with the Ukrainian authorities, but with the entire West which actively and already openly takes part today in the military conflict in Ukraine…

‘If anyone thinks that this is not according to the rules, remember: the West wrote these rules in its own interests and only in order to more effectively destroy you.’

He spoke out after President Zelensky sat down for an interview with CNN in which he warned that the West needs to prepare for the possibility that Putin will resort to using nuclear or chemical weapons against his country.

Kiva was charged with treason for supporting Putin, and is now thought to be in hiding in Russia (pictured)

Western officials feared the Russian strongman could resort to such desperate measures in a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of war in his favour after a series of embarrassing battlefield defeats.

‘They could do it,’ Zelensky said. ‘For them the life of the people [means] nothing. That’s why. 

‘We should not be afraid… but be ready. That is a question not only for Ukraine but for all the world, I think.’

His warning had been echoed days earlier by CIA director William Burns who said the threat of a Russian nuclear strike was not to be ‘taken lightly’.

‘Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far, militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons,’ he said.

‘We’re obviously very concerned. I know President Biden is deeply concerned about avoiding a third world war, about avoiding a threshold in which nuclear conflict becomes possible.’

Tactical nuclear weapons are nukes with smaller and less-powerful warheads that were originally designed to be used on friendly territory as part of defence against an invasion where the goal is not widespread destruction.

They stand in contrast to strategic nuclear weapons which carry much more powerful warheads designed to wipe out entire cities and are used mostly for deterrence.

Kiva was kicked out of parliament shortly after Russia invaded in February this year for repeating Kremlin propaganda that the country was overrun with Nazis, has no future and needs to be ‘liberated’ by Puti (File Photo) 

Kiva, from Poltava in central Ukraine, trained as a mechanic and psychologist before entering the civil service, and was working as a police major during Russia’s last invasion – in 2014.

He led a far-right nationalist party in eastern Ukraine before getting a job in the Donetsk regional administration, then moved to the federal government and served as adviser to interior minister Arsen Avakov.

Kiva was elected to parliament himself in 2019 for a pro-Russia party founded by arrested oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, having run unsuccessfully for president.

Kiva was kicked out of parliament shortly after Russia invaded in February this year for repeating Kremlin propaganda that the country was overrun with Nazis, has no future and needs to be ‘liberated’ by Putin.

He has since been charged with treason and is now thought to be in hiding in Russia, claiming the Ukrainian government is trying to kill him.

Source: Read Full Article