Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine with stolen military helicopter shot dead in Spain

A Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine last year with a Mi-8 helicopter has been found dead in an underground garage in Spain, Ukrainian officials said.

The body of pilot Maxim Kuzminov was found on 13 February with multiple bullet wounds in southern Spain’s coastal town of Villajoyosa in Alicante, reported Ukrainian and Spanish media on Monday.

Kuzminov defected to Ukraine in August last year and reached the country in a Russian Mi-8 helicopter. He was reportedly living under a different name and identity in Spain with a Ukrainian passport, the report added.

His defection was seen as a major coup for Kyiv following a six-month-long intelligence operation. Ukrainian officials confirmed they had lured him into defecting and arranged for him to land the Mi-8 in Kharkiv.

“He decided to move to Spain instead of staying here [in Ukraine]. From what we know, he invited his ex to his place and was later found shot dead,” Ukrainian news website Ukrainska Pravda reported on Monday, quoting a Ukrainian intelligence source.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence said Kuzminov died in Spain, but did not specify the cause of death. Spanish police officials have not confirmed the victim’s identity but said a body of a gunshot victim was found in the town.

The victim could have been living under a fake identity, according to a source at Spain’s Guardia Civil police force.

Investigators are searching for two suspects who are believed to have fled in a vehicle that was later found burnt and abandoned in a nearby town, reported Spain’s La Informacion newspaper.