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Date Published: 21/02/2024

Russian defector to Ukraine killed in professional hit in Spain

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The helicopter pilot was in Spain after fleeing the war in Ukraine for ethical reasons

Russian defector to Ukraine killed in professional hit in Spain

The man whose body was found last week in La Vila Joiosa (Alicante) with six gunshot wounds in his body, who was originally reported to be a Ukrainian citizen, has now been identified as Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian pilot who deserted last August with his combat helicopter to surrender to the Ukrainian Army, as sources from the Civil Guard confirmed this Tuesday February 20.

The victim’s identity has been confirmed using his fingerprints since he was carrying false documentation in which he appeared as a Ukrainian citizen. Ukrainian media outlet Kyiv Post already reported on Monday that that country’s military intelligence had confirmed Kuzminov’s death in Spain.

His escape from Russia and his landing last August with a Mi-8 fighter at a military base in the Kharkiv region, in eastern Ukraine, were publicly used by the Kiev authorities, who offered protection for him and his family.

Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s Foreign Espionage Service, Sergei Narishkin, stated this Tuesday that the deceased was “a criminal traitor”.

Kuzminov’s body was found on the afternoon of Tuesday February 13 on the ramp of a community garage in the La Cala urbanisation in La Vila Joiosa. The suspected gunmen escaped in their victim’s car, running him over whilst they fled, according to sources close to the investigation.

The car was found shortly afterwards, burnt out, in the neighbouring town of El Campello.

Read also: 64-year-old priest arrested in El Campello for stealing wheelchair from disabled person

It was a neighbour who alerted police around 6.30pm that there was a body with gunshot wounds in the neighbourhood, where mainly Russian and Ukrainian citizens live. It was also the locals themselves who told police that, although they did not know the man well, they did believe they had seen him “working on a construction site in the area”.

Guardia Civil suspected from the beginning that the documentation of the murdered man, corresponding to a 33-year-old Ukrainian, was false.

A Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, limited herself this Tuesday to saying that “we must let the agents of the armed institute do their work”, without revealing whether Kuzminov had any type of official protection in Spain.

Investigators suspect that the alleged murderers knew some of the routines of the Russian pilot, whom “they could have been monitoring for some time”. The modus operandi of the attackers initially made investigators think that it could be a settling of accounts between organised crime groups.

The desertion and escape of the Russian soldier became known in September of last year, when the Ukrainian military intelligence published images in which the pilot, who was then 28 years old, explained how he was contacted by Kyiv, who offered him to switch to the Ukrainian side in exchange for half a million dollars and protection for him and his family.

Kuzminov himself explained that he had defected because he was against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “I regret what is happening, the murders, the tears, the blood,” he said in a documentary released by the Ukrainian intelligence services. “I don't want to be complicit in Russian crimes.”

When Russian public television reported the desertion in October, the reporter announced that the order to liquidate the pilot had already been given. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said this week that he is not aware that the Spanish authorities have informed Moscow of what happened to Kuzminov and that the death “is not an issue” that appears on the Kremlin’s agenda.

In other news: Child dies in Spain after drinking energy drink mixed with 2C-B

Image: Ukraine Ministry of Defence

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