Kyiv/Madrid:
A Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine last year flying a helicopter was found dead in an underground garage in Spain last week, his body riddled with bullets, Ukrainian and Spanish media reported on Monday.
Spanish national news agency EFE reported that a body was found in the town of Villajoyosa near Alicante in southern Spain on February 13. It belonged to pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who flew the Mi Mi in August last year. -8 helicopter landed in Ukraine. He was said to have been holding a Ukrainian passport but under a different name and was living in Spain.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency confirmed to Reuters that Kuzminov had died in Spain, but did not specify the cause of death. Ukraine’s Ukraine Pravda newspaper also reported that he was found shot to death.
Spanish police confirmed the body of a gunshot victim had been found in the town but did not reveal the victim’s identity. A source in Spain’s Guardia Civilian Police force told Reuters the victim may have been living under a false identity.
Spanish newspaper Information, which first reported the shooting, said investigators were searching for two suspects who fled in a car that was later found burned in a nearby town.
Kuzminov’s defection to Ukraine last year was seen as a major coup in Kiev. The GUR said at the time that this induced him to defect.
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