22 February 2024 , 10:24
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The secret identity of the Russian defector believed to have been assassinated in Spain has been revealed today.
Maxim Kuzminov was pretending to be a Ukrainian called Igor Shevchenko. He was gunned down on the Costa Blanca after being branded a traitor by Moscow. It has emerged the getaway car his killers used had been stolen in a neighbouring Spanish province.
A Kremlin-run hit squad has been linked to last Tuesday’s assassination at an underground garage in the town of Villajoyosa a 10-minute drive from Benidorm. It was reported yesterday that Russian-made ammunition was used in the savage hit.
Kuzminov was fighting with the Russian army in Ukraine before he decided to flee, taking a military helicopter and flying away from the front lines last year. Kuzminov defected to Ukraine in a Mi-8 army helicopter with the help of Ukrainian intelligence.
Spanish police are still insisting they cannot officially confirm the victim was 28-year-old Kuzminov, because they are waiting on fingerprint, DNA or dental record proof they hope to obtain through Interpol. Reports suggest he was tracked down through a call to an ex-girlfriend inviting her to Spain.
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Maxim Kuzminov defected from the Russians with his helicopter (@wagnersfamily/X)Spanish state news agency Efe that the body had been shot half a dozen times and then been run over. Reports also said that a burning car, possibly used in the attack, was found near the area but this was not confirmed.
Police have confirmed they are working on the theory the dead man, who was living in one of the flats above the underground car park where he was targeted, was using a false identity which initially led investigators to believe he was a 33-year-old Ukrainian national.
Today Catalan newspaper El Periodico published the passport it said Ukrainian authorities are thought to have given Kuzminov after he fled his homeland last August in a stolen Mi-8 armoured helicopter and landed it in a Ukrainian military airfield.
The Ukrainian ID, described as an authentic document, included a photo of Kuzminov but was issued in the name Ihor Shevchenko on September 22, 2023. It said he had been born in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk on September 15 1990, making him five years older than he really was.
The scene where the defector was gunned down (MASH / East2west news)It is not yet clear if the Ukrainian government had issued the passport Kuzminov was using and whether Spanish intelligence and government officials knew the defector had entered the country.
Police investigators are working on the basis the killers have already left Spain. But overnight it emerged the hunt had moved south to the province of Murcia after detectives discovered the car used as a getaway vehicle had been stolen there.
The car was set alight in El Campello a 20-minute drive south of the murder scene. It has been described locally as a white Hyundai. Its whereabouts are currently unknown and an investigating judge working with police has placed a secrecy order over the case preventing public officials from making any detailed official comment.
Spanish press has claimed Kuzminov’s undoing could have been a call to an ex-girlfriend inviting her to Alicante, a favourite with Russians and Ukrainians who have made their homes on the Costa Blanca which could also have left him vulnerable even if he showed his face rarely.
Kuzminov pictured with his mum Inna Kuzminova (Maksim Kuzminov/east2west news)One Spanish media outlet, citing Ukrainian sources, said: "We know he had invited an ex-girlfriend to Spain and afterwards he was found dead. That call could have been intercepted by Russian secret services."
Respected Alicante paper Informacion reported yesterday after it emerged Russian-made ammunition had been used in the hit: “Although the exact calibre or brand has not been revealed, the fact that the ammunition is Russian-made confirms the suspicion that the dead man is not the 33-year-old Ukrainian man that the documentation he was carrying said, but 28-year-old Captain Kuzminov.”
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It added: “Sources close to the investigation consider the assassins used Russian ammunition so there would be no doubt the execution, with its exemplary overtones, came from Russian and was the direct and announced consequence of the high-profile desertion.”
When the murder occurred last week it was initially described as a suspected gangland killing.
A local resident came across the victim's body on a ramp between two underground car park basements. Investigators have concluded the shooting started on the second floor of a basement car park with the victim managing to reach the car ramp nearer the garage exit before being shot dead.
In its only official statement so far on the crime, a Civil Guard spokesman in Alicante said on Monday after reports emerged the dead man was Kuzminov: “On Tuesday last week, a man appeared dead in Villajoyosa with several gunshot wounds.
“In the course of the investigation that is being carried out, it has been learned that the identity that person was using could be false and belong to another person. The Civil Guard is still trying to confirm this.”
The police force confirmed this morning: “This is all we are saying officially about this crime at this stage.”