In front of the building in which the Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov was shot dead, in the residential area of La Cala de Villajoyosa (Alicante, 36,093 inhabitants), there is a bar with a multinational clientele and run by citizens of the East.
However, the owners, who prefer that the name of the establishment not be linked to such a gruesome event, assure that he was never seen there.
Kuzminov preferred to have breakfast a hundred meters away, in another establishment, whose name, like that of almost all those that appear in this report, is hidden at the request of the owners, where he usually ordered a coffee with milk and a toast with tomato and ham along with a mostly Spanish congregation.
“He was a normal boy, you wouldn't give a penny for him,” says the owner, “he came, sat down and didn't make conversation.”
Perhaps the Russian soldier, accused of treason by his country, realized that by choosing his hiding place on the Mediterranean coast, he had walked into the den of the lion.
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The pilot also preferred to shop at a Spanish franchise supermarket, despite the fact that less than a hundred meters from the crime scene there is another one specializing in Eastern products.
In the same neighborhood there is a place that the community uses as an Orthodox temple and a kilometer away, the Romanian faithful are building a church.
“Russians and Ukrainians are well integrated here and have all kinds of services available to them,” say Antonio, José and Alberto, three friends who share a table at the bar where the victim of the crime went.
“It was still easy for someone to recognize him,” they venture.
Although, according to the owner of the establishment, “it seems that [Kuzminov] was caught because he wanted to bring his partner” from his country.
Neither that hypothesis nor any other has emerged in an investigation immersed in the most absolute secrecy.
However, in principle, the choice of Kuzminov would have seemed like a good idea.
In this enclave of La Cala, 300 meters from the beach, three towns come together, barely separated by a handful of streets, Villajoyosa, Finestrat and Benidorm.
The murder occurred on the parking ramp of the Cala Alta residential complex in Villajoyosa, a town where 1,200 Ukrainians and 800 Russians reside, according to the municipal census.
In the total of the province of Alicante, the 2022 census counted 11,695 and 17,457, respectively, with large poles of attraction such as Torrevieja, Villajoyosa and Altea, a city located just half an hour from La Cala, on the other side of the skyscrapers of Benidorm. .
Maxim Kuzminov in an archive image.
The residential complex where the shooting occurred is a 2006 building that languished in the winter as a block of second homes until the pandemic, the subsequent crisis and the invasion of Ukraine filled it with “foreigners for rent,” says a Valencian couple who live next door. side and who also prefers anonymity.
“It has cheered up a bit,” they continue, pointing to some brick walls, “and they are building the swimming pool, which they didn't have.”
Neighbors leave the property, escaping the journalists' questions.
Either they work at home and don't know anyone or they just arrived from vacation.
Everyone seems determined to blur Kuzminov's time there.
Erase his death from a usually calm routine.
The only official information about the shooting that ended Kuzminov's life is that at 4:48 p.m. on February 13, a notice came to the 112 emergency services alerting of an alleged accident, according to sources close to the investigation.
The Vile Local Police showed up immediately and, after hearing the story of some witnesses, who claimed that they had seen a car fleeing the area at full speed, they entered the private parking lot of the urbanization and quickly discovered some bullet casings.
The agents notified the Civil Guard, whose Judicial Police has taken charge of the investigation, who simply notified the discovery of a body with gunshot wounds, initially identified as a 33-year-old Ukrainian citizen.
Although the documentation was false: in reality, it was Kuzminov, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected and surrendered to the Ukrainian army in August 2023.
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