Russian Pilot Who Stole Helicopter to Defect Found Shot to Death in Spain

Spanish police Tuesday confirmed that Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine with a helicopter last year, was found dead riddled with bullets in the car park of his home in Spain.

Kuzminov, 28, commanded a Russian Mi-8 helicopter until August 2023, when he landed inside Ukrainian lines as part of an agreement with Ukrainian military intelligence to deliver the helicopter in exchange for $500,000 and a new identity. Two crew members, unaware of the plot, were killed by Ukrainian forces after trying to escape capture.

On Monday, Ukrainian intelligence and Russian state media outlets said that Kuzminov had been murdered near Alicante, a resort city on Spain’s south east coast on February 13th, but because of the false identity provided by Ukraine, Spanish police could not confirm Kuzminov was the victim until conducting a fingerprint check.

Spanish investigators have determined Kuzminov’s body was found by a neighbor at around 6.30pm in the parking garage of his residential building in a village outside Alicante. Forensic investigations determined that Kuzminov had been shot six times before the assassins ran over his body as they escaped the scene by car. A burned vehicle believed to be used in the attack was found several miles away by police, according to both Spanish police officials and local media reports.

“The initial suspicion was an organized crime incident in an area with a large Russian and Ukrainian community,” said a Spanish police official. Alicante and other southern Spanish cities such as Marbella have large expatriate communities of Russians along with significant money laundering, arms dealing and cocaine smuggling operations.

“The mafia’s of the world are well represented in southern Spain but when we could not properly identify the victim we turned to Ukraine, who confirmed his name based on fingerprints,” said the official to VICE News.

Kuzminov had decided to take the money and new identity to Spain, rather than staying in Ukraine where the security services could better protect him from Russian retribution for treason, according to a Ukrainian official. 

The official told the Ukrainian outlet Ukrayinska Pravda: "We confirm the fact of his death... He decided to move to Spain rather than remain here. What we know is that he invited his ex-spouse to join him and then he was found shot to death."

Kuzminov’s shocking operation last August came after six months of recruitment by Ukrainian military intelligence to incite a defection after he contacted the Ukrainians for help escaping his army service. After his family quietly left Russia with Ukraine’s help, Kuzminov was flying a routine supply mission between Russian bases in Ukraine – delivering spare parts for a number of jet aircraft used by both sides in the two year old war – when he crossed into Ukrainian controlled territory without alerting two fellow crew members. Upon realising the plot, Kuzminov’s crew resisted capture and attempted to flee back to Russian lines when they were killed. 

Spanish investigators said that Kuzminov appeared to have difficulty adjusting to life in Spain and was heavily abusing drugs and alcohol before his death.

“There had been some loud incidents, drunken confrontations but nothing was reported to the police at the time,” said the Spanish police official. “He did not keep a low profile, neighbors reported he’d spoken of his military service on several occasions. And we are investigating his recent contacts with an ex-wife or lover.”

Russian officials did not confirm they conducted the assassination but were not shy about the desire to see him killed for the betrayal and deaths of his crew. 

“This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime,” Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, told Russian media when asked about the pilot.

During an inquest after his defection, Russian officials called for Kuzminov’s death. 

“If Maxim really did what he did, I hope they find him and kill him,” said the wife of one of the helicopter navigators, quoted by Russian television during the hearing.

Russian intelligence has regularly targeted defectors from its military and intelligence services under President Vladimir Putin, including the 2006 radiation poisoning of former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko in London. Litvinenko died weeks later in agony at a London hospital.

 In 2015, two suspected agents from Russian military intelligence were accused of using Novichok, a nerve agent, to target defected intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, UK. Along with a police officer who investigated the scene, both were hospitalised and eventually recovered. A woman who mistook the abandoned spray bottle used to deliver the poison for perfume later died.