A Russian pilot who fled to Ukraine while driving a helicopter in August last year was found dead in Spain.
According to Reuters, Spain’s state-run news agency EFE, and the Washington Post (WP) on the 19th (local time), the body of a Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine was found dead in the underground parking lot of an apartment complex in the village of Villajoyosa near Alicante in southern Spain on the 13th. done. Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Service (HUR), confirmed that the body found at the entrance to the parking lot of an apartment complex was ‘Maxim Kuzminov.’
According to reports, Kuzminov died from 12 gunshot wounds by unidentified assailants. At the time, Kuzminov reportedly had a Ukrainian passport under a different name and was living in Spain. EFE reported that Kuzminov’s attackers appear to have fled in this car.
The cause of death was not specifically revealed, but considering the circumstances that revealed that the body had six bullets lodged in it at the time of discovery, some raised doubts as to whether the Russians murdered Kuzminov, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this. He rejected the theory of intervention, saying the incident was “not part of the Kremlin’s agenda.”
However, after Kuzminov defected to Ukraine last year, threats to kill Kuzminov continued to emerge within Russia. Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), referred to Kuzminov as a ‘traitor’ or ‘criminal’ and noted that the moment he planned his crime (exile), he was already dead.
Also, last October, Dmitry Kiselyov, host of the state-run TV news program ‘Besti Nedeli’, said in a broadcast about Kuzminov’s exile that three masked special forces members of Russian military intelligence said, “We are committing treason at the highest level under the law.” They also made threats such as “I will punish him” and “He will not live to see the trial.”
On August 9 last year, Kuzminov flew a Mi-8 transport helicopter from Kursk in southern Russia and landed at a military base in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, bordering Russia. He was skeptical about the war in Ukraine and first contacted Ukraine’s HUR, which reportedly lured Kuzminov into exile.
HUR also boasted the achievements of the Ukrainian military by mentioning Operation Diamond in 1966, in which the Israeli Mossad manipulated an Iraqi air force pilot into exile while driving a MiG-21 attack helicopter.
Kuzminov is the first Russian air force pilot to defect to Ukraine since the outbreak of war.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.