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On the afternoon of December 6, 2023, the body of former People's Deputy of Ukraine and state traitor Illia Kiva was found in the village of Suponevo, Odintsovo District, near Moscow, on the territory of the countryside complex "Velych Country Club". Allegedly, he was killed by two shots in the chest and head. Kiva was an extremely odious "politician", who, in less than ten years, managed to change his political and ideological views radically: in 2014, he was the coordinator of the eastern direction of the "Pravyi Sector" (Правий Сектор), called himself a Ukrainian nationalist, participated in the ATO and said that "disposes of Russians into the ground". Back in those days, Kiva was affiliated with the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, who recently said that he was personally ready to shoot Kiva. Kiva worked as the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Donetsk and Kherson regions; later, he headed the Department of Combating Narcotics Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Illia unsuccessfully participated in the elections several times and tried to take over the Socialist Party of Ukraine by raiding. In 2019, Kiva became a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the currently banned party "Opposition Platform — For Life" (OPZH, Опозиційна платформа — За життя) under the quota of Viktor Medvedchuk and Vadym Rabinovych. During 2019–2022, the former "nationalist" dramatically changed his political views and was recalled for several anti-Ukrainian statements and actions, which led to criminal investigations against him even before the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
Kiva created and managed the power wing of the OPZH party, called "Patriots for Life" (Патріоти за життя), which was essentially a pro-Russian group. He left for Russia via Spain back in January 2022, and from there, he continued his propaganda and support of Russian aggression even more radically through participation in propaganda talk shows and his Telegram channel. In the first days of the full-scale aggression, Kiva was expelled from OPZH because of his statements. Moreover, Kiva left behind a whole agent network of his associates that worked for the enemy, such as local politicians from the Poltava region who were exposed or detained: Serhiy Cherednichenko and Oleg Pankratiev, an unknown deputy of the village council, as well as a businessman from Dnipro Kostiantyn Malakhov.
"Kiva's murder is a media pretext to hide the failure of attracting the US aid to Ukraine"
On December 6, 2023, the US Senate did not bring up the bill on allocating military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan for 2024 for a vote. It happened due to the Republican Party’s senators' position, who are ready to vote for the bill only along with changes to the US immigration policy. The senators are pushing for the return of strict policies followed by Republican Donald Trump during his presidency (2017-2021): building a wall on the border with Mexico, limiting the US president from creating additional humanitarian programs, changing asylum rules, etc. It has become unacceptable to President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party. The US leader reacted sharply: he accused the Republicans of political blackmail and said that US soldiers would fight with the Russian military if Putin succeeded in capturing Ukraine. Pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels blame President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Head of the Office of the President (OP) [of Ukraine] Chairman Andriy Yermak for the "failure" of this vote. In particular, anonymous users cite anecdotal reasons for Zelenskyy's refusal to speak at an online briefing before senators: "Our source from OP said that Zelenskyy did not speak in front of the senators due to bad mood and disappointment. At that moment, the president already knew that the vote in Congress on aid to Ukraine would fail, and he refused to communicate; Yermak's persuasions did not influence him, and Bankova's technologists had to launch anti-crisis statements in the media urgently."
However, since these were internal political disagreements among American politicians, it made no sense for Zelenskyy to speak in front of the senators in the absence of agreement between them, as Oksana Markarova, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA, has confirmed.
One of the anonymous Telegram channels hints that Kiva's murder was committed to divert attention from the issue: "By the way. According to the laws of the media genre, such a high-profile murder in the press can slightly "interrupt" the topic of the failure to attract the US financial aid to." Pro-Russian propagandist Anatoliy Shariy went further and called Ukrainians a "herd": "I am 100% sure that Kiva was not under the radar for the last three weeks; however, Ukrainian special forces learned about his habits much earlier. His murder was "held up" to a complete **** to divert the herd’s attention. The Senate blocked the submission of the draft law on assistance to Kyiv. The deputy landing force, together with Yermak, frankly sat down in a puddle. Zelenskyy was disgracefully sent away yesterday. It is unknown what they will fight for. So, here is a new victory — killing Kiva. The most dangerous villain. They have saved this victory for their herd. I am sure of it".
"Kiva was killed by saboteurs trained by the British"
One of the anonymous Telegram channels accused Great Britain and the USA of training saboteurs and stated that Illia Kiva was killed by this kind of an "agent": "The killing of Kiva will fundamentally change nothing, but it is worth admitting that the British trained a lot of such "specialists" who will arrange terrorist attacks/sabotage/murders". Russian propagandists accuse Western countries of using terrorists in their own interests: "The British have a lot of experience, just like in the USA (these guys are involved in the creation of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, which they created first against the USSR, and then for their special operations to control resources in the necessary territories; then selling them to Western corporations for pennies, while people become poorer and enslaved, but all the negativity is attributed to the "regular terrorists")". These channels also inform that Ukraine is supposedly a puppet of Western countries: "It turns out that Ukraine can still do something, you have to give them credit, but not in the global game."
Interestingly, Russian agitational propaganda exposes itself here, as pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels usually mimic pro-Ukrainian ones and use the pronouns "we", "our", etc., about Ukraine. In this case, Ukraine is presented as "them".
"HUR MO appropriates the SBU’s merits"
The pro-Russian propaganda publication "Strana" is trying to sow discord between the Ukrainian security forces: the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR MO). The first to confirm the murder of Illia Kiva was HUR MO’s spokesman, Andriy Yusov. According to the sources of the Reuters agency and several Ukrainian media, Kiva was eliminated due to a successful SBU operation. However, SBU itself has refrained from official comments so far. Politician Oleksiy Arestovych and blogger Yuriy Butusov spoke negatively about this, and "Strana" has reproduced it: "Ex-adviser of the head of the Office of the President Arestovych and editor-in-chief of the website "Censor" (Цензор) Butusov accused the head of HUR MO Budanov of trying to appropriate the murder of Illia Kiva near Moscow to his department for the sake of PR, while, according to their data, it was the work of the SBU, and HUR MO has nothing to do with it. It should be noted that HUR MO did not directly state that they were behind the murder of Kiva, but its representatives actively commented on this event. It is worth mentioning that Butusov had previously accused Budanov of trying to "appropriate" the attack on the Crimean Bridge and several other operations conducted by the SBU."
"Zelenskyy allegedly took revenge on Kiva for his calls to him to commit suicide"
Pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels and propaganda media "Strana" in their first posts after the news of Kiva's death drew attention to his last post on his Telegram channel, where he called on the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to commit suicide in light of alleged failures in the internal and foreign policy of Ukraine. Propagandists also draw attention to the fact that Kiva said back in 2021: if he dies, it should be considered a murder, not a suicide.
At the same time, anonymous users do not directly accuse anyone of killing Kiva. In this case, propagandists used the "fuzzy assumption" propaganda tactic. It is worth noting that incitement to suicide is a criminal offense not only in Ukraine and Russia but also in most countries of the world. Earlier, Kiva repeatedly posted threats of killing various people whose actions were against his interests.
Traitors are disliked, even in Russia
Some Russian propagandists show a very restrained attitude towards Kiva’s murder in their Telegram channels. The event is presented without inherent emotions and evaluative judgments, simply as news, a statement of fact. But in the so-called "Z- channels" in Telegram, the attitude towards Kiva is also openly negative. He is remembered for the sudden change in political views, and these users/channels do not regret his death: "It will be funny now to see the posts that the deceased Illia Kiva was a Russian patriot who rebelled against the Ukrainian regime. No, Illia Kiva was a typical khokhol [negative and offensive Russian slang connotation for naming Ukrainians], ready to sell even his mother. Russia does not need such allies. As soon as the conjuncture would change, he would be in the first ranks of those who were allegedly always for Ukraine, and he was simply faking his sympathy for Russia. Illia died — and fuck him. It's just another khokhol."
Some Russian propaganda channels mention Kiva's participation in the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) and his anti-Russian statements in 2014-2016 and accuse him of hypocrisy and greed: "He lived an odd life. He was a member of the conditionally pro-Russian party of Ukraine, supported the ATO in Donbass [transliteration from Russian], called for the genocide of Russians to move to Russia after the beginning of the special military operation, and supported Vladimir Putin’s state anti-fascism. A political scoundrel, no stranger to adventurism, he was never perceived by anyone as a political leader, a person with ideology, concepts, and honor. He lived without principles. He died without principles. We send our condolences to Kiva's loved ones if there are any on the planet. But at this time, we can say that the phrase "war takes the best" is not about a murder in a forest near Moscow.
The so-called Russian warlord Alexandr Kots also does not miss Kiva very much: "Kiva was killed in the suburbs of Moscow. Kiev [transliteration from Russian] continues the master class on eliminating traitors. Kiva was one of them for Ukraine. No matter how hard he tried, he did not become his own here [in Russia]. His background was too toxic."
Ukraine’s other traitors fear for their lives
Illia Kiva was not the only politician, even a marginal one, who betrayed Ukraine. Some of them still operate "on the sidelines" of Russian propagandists and carry out anti-Ukrainian work. It is clear from their posts that these people now fear for their own lives even more than before, so they are calling on the Russian special services to give a brutal response to Ukraine, which is allegedly involved in the murder of Kiva.
Thus, the propagandist Tetyana Montyan reacted to the news in a generally restrained manner. However, fear is visible at the end of her post: "The problem is that the saloreich’s special services [negative and offensive Russian slang connotation for naming Ukrainian government, referring to the Third Reich], are doing this with an absolute assurance that nothing will be done to them. Since nothing is done, they continue their activities, only increasing their activity. Impunity leads to permissiveness."
