Who Is Illia Kyva? Turncoat Ukraine MP Assassinated in Moscow Park

A former Ukrainian lawmaker considered to be a traitor for defecting to Russia before the start of its invasion has been found shot dead, reportedly at the hands of Kyiv's intelligence services.

The body of Illia Kyva, 46, was found in a park in southwest Moscow. Russia's investigative committee said he had died from his injuries after an unknown person "fired shots at the victim from an unidentified weapon."

John Foreman, a former British defense attaché to Moscow, told Newsweek that the reported assassination was another "high profile example showing Ukraine's reach, capabilities and ruthlessness."

Russian Telegram channel Mash said Kyva's body was found lying in the snow in the park area of the Velich Country Club hotel, located in the upmarket suburb of Odintsovo.

A Ukrainian source speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters that Ukraine's SBU security service was responsible, while Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine's GUR intelligence agency, said on Ukrainian television that Kyva was "finished" without saying who was behind his death.

"Such a fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine," Yusov said, calling him "one of the biggest scumbags, traitors and collaborators."

Born in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, where he headed the local chapter of the Right Sector party, Kyva served as leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine between 2017 and 2019.

He ran for president in 2019 in the election won by Volodymr Zelensky and was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in July that year as an MP for the Opposition Platform-For Life Party. He moved to Russia one month before Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and asked the president for a Russian passport and political asylum.

On March 15, 2022, he was stripped of his political mandate for comments he made in support of Russia and he frequently criticized Ukraine on Russian talk shows. Social media users shared a clip of him appearing on Russian television where he called for people in Ukraine to "rise up" and march on Kyiv.

The killing suggests that Kyiv has undercover assets deep inside Russia and follows reports of a campaign of targeted assassinations undertaken by Ukraine in Russian and Moscow-occupied territories.

Moscow has blamed Ukrainian secret services for the assassination of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue, and the death of Vladlen Tatarsky, a military blogger killed after a blast St Petersburg café.

In a separate attack on Wednesday, a Russian-backed politician in occupied Ukraine's eastern Luhansk regions, Oleg Popov, was killed in a car bombing, Russia's investigative committee said.

Foreman told Newsweek that regarding the killings, "U.S. and European squeamishness is understandable but of course Ukraine is fighting a war of national survival and is using all means to fight the enemy."

"The SBU and GUR are modern ministries of ungentlemanly warfare, just as SOE were for the U.K. in World War II," he said, referring to the secretive British sabotage organization, the Special Operations Executive, which operated between 1940 and 1946.

"That said, I'm not convinced of the strategic utility—beyond revenge—of some of the highest profile attacks," he said. "Although it does put everyone in Russia on their guard.

"As others have pointed out, there is a risk that Russia will retaliate in kind in Europe," he said. "To date, the EU haven't openly criticized Ukraine for these direct actions because they have been precise and without collateral damage. That of course could change in the case of a botched attack."