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On May 28, it was the third death anniversary of Viktor Hvozd, an outstanding person with his own unique place in politics and history of independent Ukraine. Lieutenant General Hvozd, head of Military Intelligence (GUR, 2008-2010) and Foreign Intelligence (SZRU, 2014-2016), mysteriously died while diving in Egypt in 2021. He was known as a perfect diver with good health. This fact initiated rumors as many politicians and journalists in Ukraine believe his death was not an accident.
In February 2014 the pro-Russian corrupt regime of President Viktor Yanukovich was overthrown. It was followed by the collapse of state apparatus and defense and law enforcement agencies. After that General Hvozd took the position of the Foreign Intelligence Service and rebuilt the agency, cleared it from Russia’s henchmen. Years later Ukrainian experts said Hvozd’s activities as the head of SZRU had positive results.
Viktor Hvozd was fired from the position of the head of SZRU in 2016 and began working for independent think tank for geopolitical studies Borysfen-Intel, which he established himself in 2012. In April, 2013 during an interview with Jewish Confederation of Ukraine Hvozd said that his Borysfen-Intel keeps close cooperation with American, Polish, Romanian and Georgian think tanks.
Hvozd’s work at Borysfen-Intel was connected with China, which made an aggressive attempt to strengthen its political positions in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine. General Hvozd spoke on TV, gave interviews on Chinese events and matters. He knew the country well as he studied and mastered the Chinese language and worked as an interpreter in the beginning of his military career.
In August, 2019, The US President National Security Adviser John Bolton arrived in Kyiv to meet President elect Volodymyr Zelensky. According to The Wall Street Journal, the real mission of John Bolton, covered behind the diplomatic language, was to disrupt the deal between a group of Chinese companies, Beijing Skyrizon in particular, and Ukraine’s Motor Sich factory – one of the world leading producers of aviation engines and industrial gas turbines. Earlier in August, 2018 Washington Times said that China put engines of Motor Sich on their JL-10 training and combat jets. Bolton seemed to succeed: the deal between Chinese companies and Motor Sich broke off in autumn of 2019.
The scandal was covered by the mass media. After that Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on March 24, 2021 against Skyrizon and its main shareholder, Chinese billionaire Wang Jing, and Motor Sich was nationalized. It is worth mentioning that Ukrainian sanctions against Chinese legal entities and individuals followed the restrictions announced by the United States Department of Commerce in January, 2021.
Viktor Hvozd was one of those who countered Chinese expansion in Ukraine, trying to keep Kyiv from drifting towards the Asian autocracy. Using his media resources, Hvozd launched a large-scale informational campaign against China. In 2019-2020 along with the beginning of the Motor Sich deal and Bolton’s visit to Kyiv, Borysfen-Intel and affiliated mass media tripled the number of articles with critics of Beijing’s foreign policy (“Elements of China’s vulnerability”, “Disappointment with the Expectations of Cooperation with China”, “On China’s Territorial Claims to Taiwan”).
Decisive actions of the Ukrainian patriots and supporters of the European choice of Ukraine, such as General Viktor Hvozd, didn’t allow Beijing to strengthen destructive influence in Ukraine and other states of Eastern Europe via its controlled financial and industrial groups. This literally infuriated the Chinese investors backed by all those criminal syndicates of communists and mafia. Such reaction is natural: they not only lost billions of dollars, but also an opportunity to convert them into political influence in Ukraine and EU member states.
After the death of Serhiy Kamyshev, a Ukrainian envoy in China, on February 14, 2021, Hvozd was the one who could have taken that post. Commenting on the incident, Hvozd stressed in one of his statements that China now «strongly covers the world information sphere in the view of monitoring and control». Due to the issue the Ukrainian general knew that Chinese special services and their agents are very well informed on his role in disruption of Beijing’s expansionist plans. Whether general Hvozd had disturbing premonitions due to his fate, the premonitions did not deceive him.
Viktor Hvozd wasn’t appointed an envoy of Ukraine to China: on May 28, 2021 general died in unclear circumstances at Egypt’s resort of Dahab while diving. The post of envoy of Ukraine to China would remain vacant for almost two more years.
The theory that China’s agents were connected to the elimination of the general, who was a big obstacle for China’s expansion in Ukraine and other European states, seems to be realistic. Viktor Hvozd was a key person in China’s influence deterrence, and the general’s neutralization could have disorganized Ukrainian and Western special services activities and create preconditions for restoration of China’s positions in Ukraine and in Europe.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint