I will find you, kill you and humiliate you

The men who killed Maxim Kuzminov wanted to send a message. It was obvious to investigators in Spain even before they discovered who he was. The killers not only shot him six times in a garage in the south of Spain, but also ran over his body with a car.

They also left an important clue that points to their identity, according to investigators: 9mm Makarov bullet casings, the standard ammunition of the former communist bloc.

"It was a clear message," said a senior official of the Civil Guard, Spain's police force overseeing the investigation into the murder. “I will find you, I will kill you, I will trample you and humiliate you.”

Kuzminov defected from Russia to Ukraine last summer, when he flew his Mi-8 military helicopter into Ukrainian territory and handed over the aircraft along with secret documents to Ukrainian intelligence operatives. In doing so, he committed an offense for which Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeated several times that he will never forgive: treason.

His killing in the seaside resort of Villajoyosa last month raised fears that Russian European spy networks are still operating and targeting Kremlin enemies, despite concerted efforts to dismantle them after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Russian intelligence services have been put on war footing and have begun operating at home and abroad with a level of aggression reminiscent of the Stalin era, said Andrey Soldatov, a journalist and expert on Russian security services.

"This is no longer about conventional espionage, but about operations that may include murder," he said.

Kuzminov lived "recklessly" in Spain, said a senior official of the Spanish police. He went to bars popular with Russian and Ukrainian clientele, squandering the money he received from the Ukrainian state. He drove around Villajos in a black "Mercedes" S class.

It is not common here in Spain for someone to be shot with a lot of ammunition. These are indications that point to organized crime, to professionals

It is not clear how exactly the killers found him, although two senior Ukrainian officials said he contacted his ex-girlfriend, who is still in Russia, and invited her to come to him in Spain.

"It was a big mistake," said one of the officials.

Senior police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the killing bore the hallmarks of similar attacks linked to the Kremlin, including the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen rebel commander in Berlin and the 2018 poisoning of former Russian military intelligence operative Sergei Skripal in England. Skripal survived.

Russia did not hide its desire to see him dead

It is clear that the two hooded killers who appeared on surveillance footage from the garage of Kuzmin's building were professionals who completed a mission and quickly disappeared, police officials said.

"It's not common here in Spain for someone to be shot with a lot of ammunition," said Pepe Alvarez, the police chief in Villajoyosa. "These are indications that point to organized crime, to a criminal organization, to professionals."

Although there is no evidence of direct Kremlin involvement, Russia has made no secret of its desire to see Kuzminova dead. Weeks after his defection, a segment aired on Russia's evening weekly news program quoted pilots and commandos from Russian military intelligence as vowing revenge.

"We will find this person and punish him, with all the rigor of the laws of our country, for treason and betrayal of our brothers," said one of the commandos, who was not identified. “Eventually we will find everything. Our arms are long”.

The defection of Kuzminov, a major success for Ukraine, was organized by a foreign secret unit in HUR, the intelligence unit of the Ukrainian army. That unit specializes in recruiting Russian fighters and sending agents into Russian territory to carry out sabotage missions. Some soldiers from the unit received specialized training from the CIA to operate in hostile environments.

While the unit was able to persuade individual Russians and sometimes small groups of soldiers to defect, Kuzminov's daring flight - and the high value of what he delivered - was unprecedented, said a senior Ukrainian official familiar with the operation.

It is difficult to assess the success of Ukraine's efforts to recruit deserters. Thousands of Russian citizens have joined volunteer units fighting on the side of the Ukrainian army and have sometimes crossed into Russian territory to carry out quick raids on border checkpoints. However, they do not seem to have significantly changed the balance of power.

Kuzminov said in interviews that he was disappointed after reading the posts of Ukrainians on the Internet.

"I understood who is on the side of good and who is on the side of truth," he said in a conversation with a Ukrainian blogger.

In the early evening of August 9, 2023, Kuzminov took off in a military helicopter from an airstrip in the Kursk region of western Russia on what was supposed to be a simple cargo delivery to another base in the country. With him in the cockpit were the technician Nikita Kiryanov and the navigator, Khushbakht Tursunov. It seems that not a single soldier was aware of what Kuzminov was up to.

Shortly after takeoff, Kuzminov turned off the helicopter's radio communication equipment and descended to a very low altitude to avoid radar. Then he moved to Ukraine.

In interviews with Ukrainian media, Kuzminov was not specific about what happened next. He said only that the helicopter landed at a prearranged meeting point in Kharkiv Oblast, a little more than 15 km from the border, where it was met by HUR commandos.

"Everything went well," he said in an interview.

It is not clear how the pilots died

The reality is more complex. When he crossed the border, Kuzminov surprised a group of Ukrainian fighters, who opened fire, according to another senior Ukrainian official. A bullet hit Kuzminov in the leg.

What happened to his crew members is less clear. A Russian TV report on them said they had been shot and killed at close range and suggested Kuzminov had killed them before landing. A senior Ukrainian official involved in the operation said that was not true.

"Our soldiers killed them," the official said. "Otherwise they would have killed Kuzminov and could have escaped with that helicopter."

Kuzminov said in interviews that his crew members had no weapons, but he never explained how they died.

HUR apparently considered the mission a great success. Soon after, General Kirill Budanov, head of Ukraine's intelligence service, announced that the operation would give confidence to other Russian soldiers considering defecting. The intelligence agency even made a documentary about the operation to show its triumph.

Kuzminov went on a media tour, held a press conference, gave interviews denouncing Russia's war and calling on others to follow his example.

"You won't regret it," he said in the documentary. "You will be taken care of for the rest of your life".

The government of Ukraine paid Kuzminov $500.000 and gave him a Ukrainian passport and a false name: Igor Shevchenko. They also offered him the opportunity to join them in the fight against Russia.

Instead, Kuzminov left Ukraine in October and drove to Vijlahoyosa, a small town on the Mediterranean coast that is popular with British and Eastern European tourists. He settled there on the ninth floor of a building about a 10-minute walk from the beach.

It was an odd choice for someone who was such a clear target for liquidation by the Russian government. The region is a well-known base of operations for Russian organized crime figures, some of whom maintain ties to the country's intelligence services, Spanish authorities say.

Red zone full of Russian agents

In 2020, Spanish police arrested more than 20 people linked to Russian criminal groups, some of whom operated out of Alicante, in the same province as Villajojos. The men were accused of laundering millions of dollars obtained through drug and human trafficking, extortion and contract killings, Spanish authorities said.

Another Russian military deserter who settled in Spain and spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons called the region where Kuzminov settled a "red zone" full of Russian agents. "I will never go there," he said.

On the morning of February 13, a white "Hyundai taxon" entered the garage of the building where Kuzminov lived and parked in an empty space between the elevators used by the tenants and the ramp leading to the street. The two men waited there for several hours, according to a senior Civil Guard official.

In the past, Russian officials have struggled to obscure Kremlin links to various killings across Europe, often despite clear evidence of state involvement. Kuzminov's case is different

Around 16:20 p.m., Kuzminov entered the garage, parked, and headed toward the elevators. While he was passing a white Hyundai, two attackers got out, called him and opened fire. Although hit by six bullets, most of them in the torso, Kuzminov managed to run a short distance before collapsing on the ramp.

The two killers got back into the car and ran over Kuzmin's body as they left the garage. The vehicle was found several kilometers away, burned with what investigators believe was a special accelerant. It took experts a week to identify the make and model of the car and determine that it had been stolen - two days before the murder - in Murcia, a city about an hour away.

A special unit of the Civil Guard is conducting the investigation under strict rules of secrecy. Authorities have not publicly confirmed that Kuzminov is the person who was killed. They are having trouble reaching officials in Ukraine who could help them.

However, in the community of Russian and Ukrainian emigrants living in Villajoyosa, there is no question as to who is behind the murder.

"Everyone thinks the services removed him," said 31-year-old Ivan, who fled his hometown of Kherson, Ukraine, at the start of the war. "They are everywhere".

Spain's annual report on threats to national security, released this month, said Russia had changed its intelligence operations in the country after expelling 27 Russian diplomats over the war in Ukraine. Although fewer in number, the report said, Russian spies are still looking for ways to "destabilize Spain's support for NATO."

In the past, Russian officials have struggled to obscure Kremlin links to various killings across Europe, often despite clear evidence of state involvement. Kuzminov's case is different. Senior Russian officials spoke of his death with barely concealed satisfaction.

"That traitor and criminal became a moral corpse the moment he planned his dirty and terrible crime," said Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russia's foreign intelligence service.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia who is now the deputy president of the Security Council of that country, said: "A dog gets a dog's death."

In contrast to the great fanfare that followed Kuzminov's defection, Ukrainian authorities have been largely silent about the murder. Senior officials worry that could deter others from following his example.

"Who will cooperate with us after this?" said one of the senior officials.

"Russia will intensively spread propaganda - and they are already doing it - that they will find all the traitors," he said. "This is a hidden message to other citizens of Russia, especially military personnel, that we will find you if you betray us."

Prepared by: A. Šofranac