A revenge from the Russians for the betrayal they suffered or a settling of scores in a new life abroad that didn't go well?
The death of Russian pilot
Maksim Kuzminov
who defected with his helicopter to Ukraine last summer and whose body was found, riddled with bullets, on the ramp of a garage in Spain is still shrouded in mystery.
The Ukrainian authorities - who after his escape from Vladimir Putin's army had secured him with his family, new documents and a 500,000 dollar reward - have confirmed that the young man is dead.
But the circumstances remain to be clarified.
Kuzminov was "a traitor and criminal who became a moral corpse already at the moment he planned his dirty and terrible crime", said the head of Russian external intelligence, Serghei Naryshkin, quoted by Tass.
Last February 14, Spanish media reported the discovery the day before of a body with at least 5 gunshot wounds - other sources spoke of 12 - on the exit ramp of a residential car park near Villajoyosa, a coastal town in the province of Alicante .
Local sources said that the victim would be "a 33-year-old man of Ukrainian origins" resident in the area, without however providing his personal details.
At the time of the desertion, Kuzminov was presented to the international press as a 28-year-old Russian pilot, but the age difference could be due to the change of identity or the preliminary stages of the investigation.
However, at the moment no Spanish authority has confirmed that it is indeed him.
The independent Belarusian media Nexta and the Russian agency Tass claimed that the victim was Kuzminov, citing Eureka News, based in Valencia, according to which - according to Guardia Civil sources - Kuzminov had recently had drug problems and alcohol.
The first investigations, according to the Spanish media, were in fact focused on the hypothesis of a settlement of accounts.
The Guardia Civil is also investigating a burnt car found shortly afterwards in the nearby town of El Campello and whether it may have been used by the hitman to escape.
Kuzminov was the protagonist of Operation Synytsia implemented with the Ukrainian Gur military services on August 9, 2023 after six months of planning, the first of its kind since the beginning of the war.
In September the young pilot recounted his helicopter escape in person in the documentary 'Downed Russian Pilots' and at a press conference in Kiev.
When his family had already been evacuated from Russia and taken to safety as promised by the Gur, Kuzminov decided to act by taking off, with two other soldiers on board, from Kursk airport towards the Kharkiv region.
Arriving in the Shebekine area, in the Russian region of Belgorod, he began to fly almost close to the ground and in radio silence mode.
Once we crossed the Ukrainian border - he explained - the shooting began.
"I can't say for sure who started it, but I assume it was the Russian side. I was wounded in the leg by a small-caliber weapon," before "landing at the place indicated" by Kiev intelligence.
The pilot then tried to convince his companions - until then unaware of the operation - to hand themselves over to the Ukrainians with him: "But they were afraid and ran out of the helicopter."
The two, Gur chief Kyrylo Budanov reported at the time, "tried to escape. Unfortunately, they were killed. It would have been better if we had captured them alive, but that's how it happened."
In Russia, Nexta recalls, a criminal case had been opened against Kuzminov for "treason to the state".
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