The lads who killed Maksim Kuzminov needed to ship a message. This was apparent to investigators in Spain even earlier than they found who he was. Not solely did the killers shoot him six instances in a parking storage in southern Spain, they ran over his physique with their automobile.
In addition they left an vital clue to their identification, in accordance with investigators: shell casings from 9-millimeter Makarov rounds, a typical ammunition of the previous Communist bloc.
“It was a transparent message,” mentioned a senior official from Guardia Civil, the Spanish police drive overseeing the investigation into the killing. “I’ll discover you, I’ll kill you, I’ll run you over and humiliate you.”
Mr. Kuzminov defected from Russia to Ukraine final summer season, flying his Mi-8 navy helicopter into Ukrainian territory and handing the plane together with a cache of secret paperwork to Ukrainian intelligence operatives. In doing so, he dedicated the one offense President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has mentioned repeatedly he won’t ever forgive: treachery.
His killing within the seaside resort city of Villajoyosa final month has raised fears that Russia’s European spy networks proceed to function and are concentrating on enemies of the Kremlin, regardless of concerted efforts to dismantle them after Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Russia’s intelligence providers have been placed on a warfare footing and begun working at a degree of aggressiveness at dwelling and overseas paying homage to the Stalin period, mentioned Andrei Soldatov, an creator and knowledgeable on Russia’s navy and safety providers.
“It’s not about typical espionage anymore,” he mentioned. “It’s about operations — and these operations may embody assassinations.”
In Spain, Mr. Kuzminov lived “an indiscreet life,” the senior Guardia Civil official mentioned. He went to bars widespread with Russian and Ukrainian clientele, burning by way of the cash he had obtained from the Ukrainian state. He drove round Villajoyosa in a black Mercedes S-Class.
Precisely how the killers discovered him has not been established, although two senior Ukrainian officers mentioned he had reached out to a former girlfriend, nonetheless in Russia, and invited her to come back see him in Spain.
“This was a grave mistake,” one of many officers mentioned.
Senior police officers talking on the situation of anonymity mentioned the killing bore hallmarks of comparable assaults linked to the Kremlin, together with the assassination of a former Chechen insurgent commander in Berlin in 2019 and the poisoning of the previous Russian navy intelligence operative Sergei V. Skripal in Salisbury, England, in 2018. Mr. Skripal survived.
The 2 hooded killers who appeared on surveillance digicam footage from the parking storage of Mr. Kuzminov’s condominium complicated had been clearly professionals who carried out their mission and rapidly disappeared, police officers mentioned.
“It isn’t widespread right here in Spain for somebody to be shot with a whole lot of ammunition,” mentioned Chief Pepe Álvarez of the Villajoyosa Police Division. “These are indications that time to organized crime, to a legal group, to professionals.”
Whereas no proof of direct Kremlin involvement has emerged, Russia had made no secret of its want to see Mr. Kuzminov lifeless. Weeks after his defection, the Kremlin’s signature Sunday night information program ran a phase quoting fellow pilots and commandos from Russia’s navy intelligence service vowing revenge.
“We’ll discover this particular person and punish him, with all of the severity of our nation’s legal guidelines, for treason and for betraying his brothers,” mentioned one in all commandos, who was not recognized. “We discover everybody ultimately. Our arms are lengthy.”
The defection of Mr. Kuzminov was a coup for Ukraine, orchestrated by a covert unit within the HUR, Ukraine’s navy’s intelligence arm. The unit focuses on recruiting Russian fighters and operating brokers on Russian territory to hold out sabotage missions. Some troopers from the unit have obtained specialised coaching from the C.I.A. on working in hostile environments.
Whereas the unit had been in a position to persuade particular person Russians and generally small teams of troopers to defect, Mr. Kuzminov’s daring flight — and the excessive worth of what he delivered — was unprecedented, mentioned a senior Ukrainian official with data of the operation.
The success of Ukraine’s efforts to recruit defectors is tough to quantify. 1000’s of Russian residents have joined volunteer models combating with the Ukrainian navy and at instances crossed into Russian territory for lightning raids on border outposts. It doesn’t seem, nevertheless, that they’ve shifted the steadiness of energy in any important means.
Mr. Kuzminov mentioned in interviews that he turned disillusioned after studying postings by Ukrainians on the web.
“I understood who was on the aspect of fine and who was on the aspect of reality,” he mentioned in an interview with a Ukrainian blogger.
Within the early night of Aug. 9, 2023, Mr. Kuzminov took off in a navy helicopter from an airfield within the Kursk area in western Russia for what was presupposed to be a easy cargo supply to a different base within the nation. With him within the cockpit had been a technician named Nikita Kiryanov and a navigator, Khushbakht Tursunov. Neither soldier appeared to concentrate on Mr. Kuzminov’s plans.
Shortly after takeoff, Mr. Kuzminov turned off the helicopter’s radio communications gear and dove to an altitude of slightly below 20 ft to evade radar. Then he crossed into Ukraine.
In interviews with Ukrainian information media, Mr. Kuzminov was coy about what occurred subsequent. He mentioned solely that he had landed the helicopter at a prearranged rendezvous level within the Kharkiv area, simply over 10 miles from the border, the place he was met by HUR commandos.
“All the things went effectively,” he mentioned in a single interview.
The truth is extra sophisticated. When he crossed into the nation, Mr. Kuzminov stunned a gaggle of Ukrainian fighters, who opened fireplace, in accordance with one other senior Ukrainian official. Within the confusion, Mr. Kuzminov was shot within the leg.
What occurred to his crewmates is much less clear. A Russian tv report about them, citing a medical expert, claimed that the 2 had been shot and killed at shut vary and instructed that Mr. Kuzminov had killed them earlier than touchdown. The senior Ukrainian official concerned within the operation mentioned this was not true.
“Our troopers shot them,” the official mentioned. “In any other case they might have killed Kuzminov and will have escaped in that helicopter.”
In interviews, Mr. Kuzminov mentioned his crewmates had been unarmed however by no means defined how they died.
The HUR clearly thought-about the mission a serious success. Shortly afterward, Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s navy intelligence chief, introduced that the operation would give confidence to different Russian troopers who had been contemplating defection. The intelligence company even produced a documentary movie concerning the operation to showcase its triumph.
Mr. Kuzminov went on a media tour, holding a information convention, giving interviews denouncing Russia’s warfare and calling on others to comply with his instance.
“You gained’t remorse it,” he mentioned within the documentary. “You’ll be taken care of for the remainder of your life.”
The Ukrainian authorities paid Mr. Kuzminov $500,000 and offered him a Ukrainian passport and a faux title: Ihor Shevchenko. In addition they supplied him an opportunity to affix them in combating Russia.
As a substitute, Mr. Kuzminov left Ukraine in October and drove to Villajoyosa, a small city on the Mediterranean coast widespread with British and Japanese European vacationers. There, he settled on the ninth flooring of a modest condominium constructing a few 10-minute stroll from the seashore.
It was a curious selection for somebody so explicitly focused by the Russian authorities for liquidation. The area is a well known base of operation for Russian organized crime figures, a few of whom keep ties to the nation’s intelligence providers, the Spanish authorities say.
In 2020, the Spanish police arrested greater than 20 folks related to Russian legal teams, a few of whom had been working out of Alicante, in the identical province as Villajoyosa. The folks had been charged with laundering hundreds of thousands of {dollars} acquired by way of drug and human trafficking, extortion and contract killings, the Spanish authorities mentioned.
One other Russian navy defector who has settled in Spain and spoke on the situation of anonymity for security causes referred to as the area the place Mr. Kuzminov settled “a crimson zone” full of Russian brokers. “I’ll by no means go there,” he mentioned.
On the morning of Feb. 13, a white Hyundai Tucson entered the storage underneath Mr. Kuzminov’s condominium constructing and parked in an empty spot between the elevators utilized by residents and the ramp resulting in the road. Two males waited there for a number of hours, in accordance with the senior Guardia Civil official.
Round 4:20 p.m., Mr. Kuzminov drove into the storage, parked and started strolling towards the elevators. As he handed in entrance of the white Hyundai, the 2 assailants emerged, referred to as out to him and opened fireplace. Although he was struck by six bullets, most of them within the torso, Mr. Kuzminov managed to dash a brief distance earlier than collapsing on the ramp.
The 2 killers acquired again into the automobile and ran over Mr. Kuzminov’s physique on their means out. The car was discovered just a few miles away, burned with the assistance of what investigators consider was a particular accelerant. It took specialists every week to determine the make and mannequin of the automobile and set up that it had been stolen — two days earlier than the killing — in Murcia, a city about an hour away.
A particular unit within the Guardia Civil is finishing up the investigation underneath strict secrecy guidelines. The authorities haven’t publicly confirmed that Mr. Kuzminov was the particular person killed. They’ve struggled to succeed in officers in Ukraine who may assist them.
However among the many neighborhood of Russian and Ukrainian expatriates dwelling in Villajoyosa, there was no query of who was behind the demise.
“Everybody thinks the providers took him out,” mentioned Ivan, 31, who fled his dwelling metropolis, Kherson, Ukraine, at first of the warfare. “They’re in all places.”
Spain’s annual report on nationwide safety threats, revealed this month, mentioned Russia had revamped its intelligence operations within the nation after the expulsion of 27 Russian diplomats over the warfare in Ukraine. Although fewer in quantity, the report mentioned, Russian spies continued to hunt out methods to “destabilize Spain’s assist for NATO.”
Prior to now, Russian officers have twisted themselves into knots making an attempt to obfuscate the Kremlin’s connection to varied assassinations round Europe, typically within the face of clear proof of state involvement. Mr. Kuzminov’s case is completely different. Senior Russian officers spoke of his demise with barely disguised glee.
“This traitor and legal turned an ethical corpse the second he deliberate his soiled and horrible crime,” mentioned Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s overseas intelligence service.
Dmitri A. Medvedev, the previous Russian president who’s now the deputy chairman of the nation’s safety council, mentioned, “A canine will get a canine’s demise.”
In distinction with the nice fanfare that accompanied Mr. Kuzminov’s defection, the Ukrainian authorities have been principally quiet concerning the killing. Senior officers fear that it may dissuade others from following his instance.
“Who will cooperate with us after this?” mentioned one of many senior officers.
“Russia will intensively unfold propaganda — they’re already doing it — that they’ll discover all traitors,” he mentioned. “It is a hidden message to different residents of Russia, particularly navy personnel, that we are going to discover you in case you betray us.”