A traitorous Ukrainian lawmaker is killed in Moscow by a Kiev hit squad who shot him in the head 18 months after he urged Putin to use weapons of mass destruction.

Kyiv said he orchestrated the killing of a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician today, after the body of a former lawmaker who had defected to Russia he found himself outside Moscow with a bullet wound to the head.

A source in the Ukrainian defense sector said that its SBU security services had orchestrated the killing of Ilya Kyvaa former Ukrainian lawmaker who was expelled from parliament and defected to Russia weeks after Moscow launched its military offensive last year.

Kyva's body was discovered today in the suburbs of Moscow. His death came 18 months after he urged Putin to use weapons of mass destruction against Ukraine amid growing fears that Russia could resort to using nuclear weapons.

“An unknown person shot the victim with an unidentified weapon. The man died on the spot from his injuries,” Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement. He said he had opened a case on her death.

Speaking on national television, Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said: “We can confirm that Kyva is finished. Such a fate will befall other traitors in Ukraine, as well as regime henchmen of Putin”.

Kyva, an opposition politician expelled from parliament for supporting Putin's invasion, called on Russia to use weapons of mass destruction in April last year (above)

Yusov called Kyva “one of the biggest scoundrels, traitors and collaborators” and called his death “justice”.

Russian law enforcement has opened an investigation into his death at a country club in Odintsovo, near Moscow, where he lived in exile under Putin's protection.

In April last year, Kyva, 46, urged To put to use weapons of mass destruction against their own country amid growing concerns that Moscow could resort to the use of nuclear weapons.

Kyva posted the appeal on his Telegram channel, just a day later Zelensky warned that Putin could go nuclear.

Under the image of a nuclear explosion, Kyva wrote: “REMEMBER!!! – BE AFRAID AND ONLY RESPECT THE POWER!!!

'Zelensky, his entourage and the Western commissars, are most afraid of a [Russian] preventive strike [with] weapons of mass destruction.

“This is what can end today's confrontation, not only with the Ukrainian authorities, but with the entire West that today actively and openly participates in the military conflict in Ukraine…

“If anyone thinks this does not conform to the rules, remember: the West wrote these rules in their own interests and only to destroy you more effectively.”

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

Western officials feared the Russian strongman might resort to such desperate measures in a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of the war in his favor after a series of humiliating defeats on the battlefield.

Speaking on national television, Ukraine's military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov called Kyva “one of the biggest scoundrels, traitors and collaborators” and called his death “justice” .

In a virulently anti-Zelensky rant on Russian state television, Kyva said: “The elimination of the Slavic world that began in 1941 was only suspended in 1945 . . .”

“They could do it,” Zelensky said. 'For them people's lives [means] nothing. This is because.

'We needn't be afraid… but be prepared. This is a question not only for Ukraine but for the whole world, I think.

Kyva's death also came hours after he claimed in his latest social media post that Zelensky would be forced to flee to Britain.

A Kremlin propagandist, appearing on compliant state television programs, had alleged that Zelensky was a MI6 puppeteer and cocaine addict.

Five hours before his death, he posted: “Zelensky's only option is to flee to England, but even from there he is extradited when favorable to the Crown or dies when necessary for the Kremlin.”

He saw the failure of the United States to back Zelensky's plea for more cash and weapons this week as a victory for Putin and “the countdown to Zelensky's removal from power.”

In a vitriolic post, he told followers: “At this stage, many countries are willing to accept [Zelensky] and their family and guarantee the safety of life, but it is impossible to be sure that they will not be extradited later.

'A logical end of the ****** that drowned the nation in blood.

Kiva was charged with treason for supporting Putin (File photo)

Kyva was kicked out of parliament shortly after Russia invaded in February this year for repeating Kremlin propaganda that the country was overrun by Nazis, had no future and needed to be “liberated” by Putin (File photo)

“It would be better if Zelensky killed himself now, as losers have always done, to take all the problems with him and close the matter.

“But he is too cowardly and narcissistic for such actions.”

In a virulently anti-Zelensky rant on Russian state television, Kyva said: “The elimination of the Slavic world that began in 1941 was only stopped in 1945…

“The West regrouped for another strategic strike, because the key objective is the total destruction of the Slavic world…

“The collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy… splitting us into separate parts now being captured, colonized and destroyed.

“Ukraine is a living example of this… occupied and under the rule of the West…”

Kyva, who was from Poltava in central Ukraine, was wanted in his homeland for high treason for supporting Putin's invasion.

He trained as a mechanic and psychologist before entering the civil service, and was working as a police major during Russia's latest invasion in 2014.

He led a far-right nationalist party in eastern Ukraine before getting a job in the Donetsk regional administration and then moving to the federal government and was an advisor to the Minister of the Interior Arsen Avakov.

Kyva was elected to Parliament in 2019 by a pro-Russian party founded by detained oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, after running unsuccessfully for the presidency.

He was kicked out of parliament shortly after Russia invaded in February last year for repeating Kremlin propaganda that the country was overrun by Nazis, had no future and needed to be “liberated” by Putin.

In April last year, Kyva urged Putin to use weapons of mass destruction against his own country amid growing fears that Russia could resort to using nuclear weapons (File photo)

Kiev rarely commented on whether it was behind a series of killings of pro-Russian figures, both in Russia and in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces.

But it has recently begun to claim responsibility for a series of attacks and has openly threatened to pursue other “collaborators” and “traitors”.

Since the Russian invasion, Ukraine has claimed to be behind several assassinations and attacks against pro-war Russians and former Ukrainian officials who have supported Moscow's war.

In August last year, Russian nationalist Darya Dugina was killed outside Moscow in a car bomb attack, while an explosion at a St Petersburg cafe in April killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky.

Ukraine has not publicly claimed responsibility for these attacks, although US intelligence and media reports have linked Kiev to them.

Several lower-ranking Ukrainian officials and politicians who welcomed the Russian invasion and worked for the Russian-backed authorities in the occupied areas of Ukraine have also been killed.

In a separate incident, a deputy lawmaker in Ukraine's eastern Lugansk region was killed in a car bomb attack also on Wednesday, Russian investigators said.

Oleg Popov, who served as a deputy in the pro-Moscow Lugansk regional parliament, was killed after an “unidentified device was detonated in a car,” Russia's Investigative Committee said, without providing details .