Russian defector killed in Spain, Ukraine says

Russian defector Maksim Kuzminov, who flew a military helicopter to Ukraine and detailed his escape, has been found dead, Ukraine’s intelligence service said.

Kuzminov’s body was found at the entrance to a residential complex in Villajoyosa, a town in Spain, Ukrainian spokesperson Andriy Yusov confirmed to The Washington Post.

His body was found with multiple bullet wounds and run over by a car. Witnesses told local media that gunmen shot him many times and ran him over in an escape car, the Post reported.

Kuzminov was a 28-year-old Russian military pilot who defected to Ukraine last year. He detailed his dramatic escape in a helicopter and urged others to follow his path.

In a video released last September, he said he first reached out to HUR, Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, in 2022, and agreed on a plan to escape by flying his Mi-8 helicopter into a safe corridor to reach Ukraine. He said he flew the helicopter at an “extremely low altitude in radio silence mode” to avoid detection leaving the Russian air base.

Kuzminov escaped on Aug. 9, and marked the first time a Russian pilot defected since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

Kuzminov’s death marks a potential turning point for Europe, being the latest example of Russian officials carrying out a killing internationally, the Post noted.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told the outlet that the assassination could embolden Russians to continue international killings.

In the video, Kuzminov said he was a Russian military transport pilot, moving troops and equipment, chose to leave Russia because he was opposed to the war with Ukraine. He said he wrote to HUR via Telegram when the war began to come up with an escape plan, because he did not want to contribute to war crimes.

Spanish police initially believed the “bullet riddled” body belonged to a Ukrainian by a different name, but now say further investigation is necessary, the Post reported. Spain’s Interior Ministry would not confirm the identity of the body found at the time the Post published its article.

Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, said Kuzminov was dead the moment he began planning his escape. He also called Kuzminov a traitor and criminal, according to the Post.

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