After Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov spectacularly defected to Ukraine and stole an attack helicopter, the 33-year-old was found shot dead in Spain last week. The head of the Russian foreign secret service SWR now commented on the death of the young Russian: he had already become a “moral corpse” when he planned the “crime against his homeland”.
For Ukraine, which used the defector’s case for propaganda purposes, Kuzminov was a hero. However, for SWR director Sergei Naischkin he is a criminal. “This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the moment he planned his dirty and terrible crime,” Narishkin said, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. He did not want to say more: ‘In Russia it is often said: either you talk well about the dead, or you don’t talk at all.’ Kuzminov’s death is ‘not an issue’ on the Kremlin’s agenda.
Getaway car found burnt out
Kuzminow’s remains were discovered on the slope of a garage in the coastal town of La Vila Joiosa, near Alicante. His body was riddled with six bullets. The identity of the man shot was confirmed by his fingerprints; he only had papers with a false identity. His attackers are said to have fled in a car, according to the Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’. The suspected getaway vehicle was eventually found burned out in the neighboring town of El Campello.
Pilot had “regretted” war against Ukraine
After defecting, Kuzminov stated that he was against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “I regret what happened, the killings, the tears, the blood,” he said in a documentary by Ukrainian intelligence. He was convinced that there are “neither fascists nor Nazis” in Ukraine, as the Kremlin claims.
Russia ordered the deserter to be liquidated
He finally deserted on August 9 while on duty near the Russian-Ukrainian border. “I landed and they welcomed me (to Ukraine),” he said. The government in Kiev said at the time that the pilot was injured after landing but quickly received medical care. Russian state television reported that the order had been given to liquidate the pilot.
Source: Krone
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