A ‘hero’ Russian military pilot who flew his Mi-8 helicopter over the frontline to defect to Ukraine has found dead in Spain amid reports in Moscow that his body was ‘riddled with bullets’.
Captain Maksim Kuzminov, 28, fled Russia with the help of Ukrainian intelligence services and accused Vladimir Putin of ‘genocide’ following his daring escape last summer.
Ukrainian GUR military intelligence confirmed today that the pilot – a known target of Russian death squads – had died in Spain, but gave no further details about the circumstances surrounding his death.
It comes after Spanish authorities said a Ukrainian man aged 33 had been shot dead inside a garage in Villajoyosa, near Alicante, on Tuesday afternoon.
Sources close to the inquiry said the man had received nearly a dozen gunshot wounds. A burnt-out car believed to have been linked to the shooting was subsequently found nearby.
Almost a week later, a sudden flurry of reports from state and pro-Putin media in Russia have strongly suggested that Kuzminov was the victim in the Spanish shooting.
Responding to the reports, investigators in Spain said today that they are looking into whether the victim, who has not been named, may have been using a false identity.
Reports of the mysterious death have emerged days after Putin critic Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony.
His widow today claimed her husband was poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok, and blamed the Russian president for his death.
State media previously reported that Putin’s military intelligence service had orders to go to any length to ‘eliminate’ Kuzminov, who has been labelled a traitor in his homeland.
There have now been claims in Russia that the war critic had kept in contact with people from his former life, which may have led the Russian authorities to him.
State news agency TASS reported: ‘Maxim Kuzminov, a pilot who hijacked a Russian military helicopter in 2023, has reportedly been found dead in Spain, a number of Spanish military outlets said.’
Another Kremlin-obedient outlet Mash said there were reports that ‘the body of Maxim Kuzminov was seen by a local resident on February 13 – it was riddled with bullets.’
The outlet also claimed the defector had ‘behaved inappropriately, shouted and constantly chattered drunkenly about his past and present life.’
Pro-Putin outlet Shot reported: ‘Pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who hijacked a Russian military helicopter, was found dead in Spain. They shot him 12 times and then ran over him in a car.’
It later amended its story to say he was ‘allegedly found dead’.
Russian media channels have also piled blame on Ukraine for the defector’s death, without providing evidence.
TASS alleged that ‘Ukrainian intelligence agencies could have eliminated [Kuzimov] as an inconvenient witness’.
In October, soon after his dramatic defection, there were public death threats against Kuzminov in Russia, with suggestions that Putin’s secret services would find and kill him for an ultimate betrayal.
Anonymous Spetsnaz special forces officers from Russia’s GRU were last year shown on Moscow state TV making clear an ‘order’ had been given to liquidate Kuzminov.
State-run Rossiya 1 channel’s Vesti Nedeli channel told viewers in a chilling broadcast: ‘The order [to kill Captain Kuzminov] was received, its execution is a matter of time.’
One Spetsnaz officer said: ‘We’ll find…
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