Russian defector’s violent death in Spain seen as warning to Ukraine war critics

The apparent violent death of a Russian pilot whose dramatic defection was touted by Ukraine highlights the safety risks of those who loudly resist Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.

Maxim Kuzminov flew a Russian Mi-8 helicopter into Ukrainian territory last year and then defected. Six months after that operation was made public, Ukrainian authorities say he has died in Spain.

A man’s body was found riddled with bullets inside a garage in southeastern Spain on Feb. 13. Police believe Kuzminov is the victim, though an official identification has not yet been made.

In Moscow’s first comments on the case since news emerged of the killing, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said the dead pilot had betrayed his country.

“This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime,” Sergei Naryshkin was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Western leaders say Russia frequently assassinates those it deems traitors abroad. Moscow says the West has not provided evidence to support such assertions.

Expats fear further reprisals

Yulia Taran, deputy head of a group called Free Russians in Spain, said the group had assisted other Russian defectors over the past two years, and it was common practice for them to assume false identities “in order to not be found by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s agents.”

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“I think [defectors] are very worried now, and let’s hope that Spanish police and secret services do well their job to prevent” any further persecution, she said.

Ukrainska Pravda newspaper quoted the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, as saying Kyiv had advised Kuzminov to stay in Ukraine, where he “would have been protected.”

Kuzminov’s defection to Ukraine was presented last year as a major coup for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government. Appearing at a news conference in Kyiv, Kuzminov said he could not understand why his “beloved motherland” would…