Spanish state news agency EFE said on Monday that the body discovered on February 13 in Villajoyosa, a town near Alicante in southern Spain, is that of pilot Maksim Kuzminov, who landed in Ukraine in a fully equipped Mi-8 helicopter in August last year. It was reported that it was.
After landing at a Ukrainian military airfield, two other crew members were shot and killed while fleeing.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence confirmed to Reuters that Kuzminov had died in Spain, but did not specify the cause of death. Ukraine’s Ukraiska Pravda newspaper also reported that he was found shot to death.
Spanish police confirmed that the body of a shooting victim was found in the town, but did not release the victim’s identity. An official with Spain’s Guardia civilian police told Reuters the victims may have been living under false identities.
Spain’s La Información newspaper, which first reported the shooting, said investigators were searching for two suspects who fled in a vehicle that was later found burnt out in a nearby town. I told you.
Police initially believed the death may have been gang-related, the Guardian reported.
Kuzminov’s defection to Ukraine last year was presented as a major coup for Kiev.
Ukrainian officials at the time said the defection was part of a six-month special operation called “Tits” and that the 28-year-old pilot’s family had been transferred from Russia to Ukraine before the defection.
The Russian had received the equivalent of approximately US$496,000 from Kiev for defecting and bringing helicopters to the Ukrainian army.
In September, the pilot said he defected because he did not want to be involved in war crimes.
“Ukraine will definitely win this war simply because its people are very united,” Kuzminov said. “The whole world is supporting because we understand that human life must be valued.”
Moscow state television reported in the fall that Russian secret services had received orders to kill the man, whom the Russian government deemed a traitor.
Ukraine, which has been fending off a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022, had set up a bounty for functional Russian military equipment delivered to Kiev in April 2022.
Russian defectors who surrender the jets are being offered a reward worth up to $990,000 or more.
Reuters, DPA, Business Insider