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Quoted By: >>1269991
Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine last summer, was shot dead in Spain, according to Spanish news agency EFE.
Spanish police originally investigated his death as gang-related, according to EFE.
He was shot several times in an underground parking lot in the resort town of Villajoyosa, Alicante, the report said. At the time of the incident, he was also carrying an ID with a different name and age.
Those, suspected to have murdered Kuzminov, then lit the car they were driving on fire to conceal the evidence.
His murder came a little over a year after he collaborated with the Ukraine military to fly a Russian armored combat Mi-8 helicopter to a Ukrainian airbase.
Moscow has been publici
zing his murder because it serves as an example, according to the sources consulted. It is not only a warning to those who might be tempted to follow his example (Kyiv rewarded the defector with $500,000), but also to avenge the pilot’s two companions: two lieutenants who were unaware of his escape plan were shot down by the Ukrainians when they tried to flee, after Kuzminov landed at a military base near Kharkiv. The deceased, the navigator and the mechanic, were decorated as heroes by the Russian Army, while the pilot was prosecuted for treason. Last October, Russian public television claimed, showing three alleged GRU members, that they had been ordered to kill the defector. “He will not live long enough to stand trial,” said one of them.
Spain should invoke article 5 in my opinion.
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-22/gunmen-sent-by-moscow-killed-defector-sheltering-in-alicante-spanish-intelligence-services-say.html#
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/russian-helicopter-pilot-who-defected-to-ukraine-shot-dead-in-spain-reports/3142688
Spanish police originally investigated his death as gang-related, according to EFE.
He was shot several times in an underground parking lot in the resort town of Villajoyosa, Alicante, the report said. At the time of the incident, he was also carrying an ID with a different name and age.
Those, suspected to have murdered Kuzminov, then lit the car they were driving on fire to conceal the evidence.
His murder came a little over a year after he collaborated with the Ukraine military to fly a Russian armored combat Mi-8 helicopter to a Ukrainian airbase.
Moscow has been publici
zing his murder because it serves as an example, according to the sources consulted. It is not only a warning to those who might be tempted to follow his example (Kyiv rewarded the defector with $500,000), but also to avenge the pilot’s two companions: two lieutenants who were unaware of his escape plan were shot down by the Ukrainians when they tried to flee, after Kuzminov landed at a military base near Kharkiv. The deceased, the navigator and the mechanic, were decorated as heroes by the Russian Army, while the pilot was prosecuted for treason. Last October, Russian public television claimed, showing three alleged GRU members, that they had been ordered to kill the defector. “He will not live long enough to stand trial,” said one of them.
Spain should invoke article 5 in my opinion.
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-22/gunmen-sent-by-moscow-killed-defector-sheltering-in-alicante-spanish-intelligence-services-say.html#
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/russian-helicopter-pilot-who-defected-to-ukraine-shot-dead-in-spain-reports/3142688
