High-Profile Russian Defector Who Landed Helicopter in Ukraine to Escape to West Shot Dead

A Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine, taking his Cold War-era helicopter with him, was the victim of a shooting attack last week, Ukrainian media says.

A man was found shot dead in a parking garage in Villajoyos, Alicante, Spain last week. Although Spanish authorities haven’t released the name of the deceased, Ukrainian media now says the remains are of Captain Maksim Kuzminov, a Russian military pilot who defected with his helicopter to Ukraine last year.

Ukrainian Pravda cited a source in the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine directorate which “confirmed” the death of the defector, and who said after his crossing to the West Kuzminov had moved to Spain, presumably using the half-million dollar reward paid to him by the Ukrainian government for defecting.

Spanish newspaper El Pais reports Kuzminov’s body was found “riddled with bullets” and that he had also been run over by his attackers. A getaway car was later found burnt out.

The paper also notes Kuzminov was carrying false papers, suggesting he may have been living under an assumed identity, given previous threats to kill him, and that the Alicante neighbourhood where he lived was popular with Ukrainian and Russian expatriates.

Russia had already ordered the liquidation of their “traitor” last year, and said in a response to the news of his demise today that Kuzminov had already died morally at the point at which he decided to flee to the West, calling it a “dirty and terrible crime”. Russia further alleged that Kuzminov may have been killed by Ukraine themselves, to “eliminate… an inconvenient witness”.

Speaking last year after his defection to Ukraine, transport helicopter pilot Kuzminov said he felt motivated because he opposed Russia’s genocide against Ukraine, and was against “killings, tears, and blood”.

Two of his crew were shot dead in the course of the defection, given they were unaware of Kuzminov’s plans and attempted to flee back towards the Russian border after he landed in Ukrainian territory.

While the case of the helicopter pilot is perhaps the highest profile publicly acknowledged military desertion in the course of the Ukraine war so far, Russia sees it as enough of a problem that it started taking passports away from public officials and state employees to prevent them from going on holiday and then never returning. It was asserted last year that those in sensitive positions were given the option to surrender their passports for “safe keeping” or resign their jobs.