Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine killed in Spain

A Russian military pilot who defected to Ukraine in August and turned over his Mi-8 combat helicopter to the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been killed in Spain, Russian state media outlets confirmed on Monday.

Spanish media first reported the death of an unnamed Ukrainian national in La Villajoyosa, a coastal town in eastern Spain, on Wednesday. On Monday Russian state media identified the murdered man as Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov.

Kuzminov landed his helicopter in a Ukrainian airfield in August in what was later confirmed to have been a special operation by the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR). Two other crew members who were not aware of the operation were reported “eliminated” after landing, sources told Ukrainian media at the time.

Kuzminov later appeared in a GUR video, where he said that he had chosen to defect because he opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and did not want to take part in it. His family had moved to Ukraine prior to his defection.

GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov, who in September revealed that Kuzminov had received a reward of $500,000 for defecting, confirmed Kuzminov’s death to RBC Ukraine on Monday.

A state TV report from October, in which Russian propagandists branded Kuzminov “a traitor to the motherland”, claimed that Russian intelligence operatives had received orders to kill Kuzminov.