Russia’s foreign intelligence service described a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in Spain as a “moral corpse” who had betrayed his country.
This is the first time Moscow has commented on the incident since news of the killing broke.
The pilot defected to Ukraine in August last year and arrived in an Mi-8 helicopter.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency confirmed that Maxim Kuzminov had died in Spain, but did not provide details on the cause of death.
Spanish authorities confirmed on February 13 that a body with multiple gunshot wounds was found in an underground garage near Alicante in southern Spain.
Spanish and Ukrainian media reported that the shooting victim was a pilot living in Spain under a false identity.
“This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the moment he planned his dirty and horrible crime,” Tass news agency quoted the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service as saying on Tuesday, February 20.
The Kremlin said Tuesday it did not have any information about Kuzminov’s death.
Western leaders have previously accused Russia of targeting people it sees as traitors abroad.
Moscow says it has provided no evidence to support these claims.
A Spanish court has opened an investigation into the death of a shooting victim, a judicial source told Reuters.
“As this is an ongoing incident, I would like to make it clear that I cannot provide any further information at this time. We must await the work of the police before we can proceed with the investigation.”
Kuzminov’s defection to Ukraine was presented as a major coup for Kiev.
At a press conference last year, he said he could not understand why his “beloved motherland” would go to war with Ukraine.
Other air crew members also died during his defection.
Moscow said Kuzminov killed them, but said they may have fled in a panic and then been killed.