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Storming of a Russian helicopter: This video published by the Ukrainian secret service is intended to show how a Russian military pilot defected to Ukraine with a helicopter.
Accordingly, the pilot flew to Ukraine in August last year with a fully equipped “Mil Mi-8” helicopter and landed the helicopter at a military airfield. Two other uninitiated crew members were killed, it was said at the time. The information provided by the Ukrainian secret service cannot be independently verified.
Maxim Kuzminov, Russian defector
»I contacted the Ukrainian secret service and explained my situation. They offered to provide me with security, new documents and money as a reward. We discussed it and planned my escape.”
Ukraine has been offering rewards for military equipment from Russia since April 2022. Kuzminov is apparently being used as a good example by the Ukrainian secret service. He should motivate others to do the same.
Maxim Kuzminov, Russian defector
»If you do what I did, you won't regret it. You are equipped with everything for the rest of your life: you can get a job anywhere, whatever you want to do. You will get to know a whole new colorful world. Especially when you realize that you know little, that you haven't seen much, like how other people live. When you discover this, you will radically change your perspective on things.«
According to the information, the defector received the equivalent of more than 460,000 euros for his crime.
Kuzminov is now believed to be dead. According to reports in Ukrainian and Spanish media, his body was found last week in an underground car park near the Spanish city of Alicante. The body is said to have multiple gunshot wounds.
The Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reports, citing the Ukrainian secret service, that Kuzminov had previously decided to move to Spain and bring his ex-girlfriend with him. A burned-out car was also found near the site, possibly belonging to the perpetrators.
The Spanish Interior Ministry confirmed the discovery of the body to SPIEGEL. So far it has been determined that the person may have been registered under a false identity. The Spanish news agency "EFE" reports, with reference to investigative circles, that it is actually the Russian helicopter pilot.
The director of the Russian foreign intelligence service “SWR” called Kuzminov a “moral corpse.” Russian state television said in the fall that the Russian secret service had received the order to kill the man.