Inside the killing of a Russian defector with all the hallmarks of a Kremlin hit job

Exactly how the killers found him has not been established, though two senior Ukrainian officials said he had reached out to a former girlfriend, still in Russia, and invited her to come see him in Spain.

“This was a grave mistake,” one of the officials said.

“A dog gets a dog’s death.”

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president

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

The two hooded killers who appeared on surveillance camera footage from the parking garage of Kuzminov’s apartment complex were clearly professionals who carried out their mission and quickly disappeared, police officials said.

“It is not common here in Spain for someone to be shot with a lot of ammunition,” said Chief Pepe Álvarez of the Villajoyosa Police Department. “These are indications that point to organised crime, to a criminal organisation, to professionals.”

While no evidence of direct Kremlin involvement has emerged, Russia had made no secret of its desire to see Kuzminov dead. Weeks after his defection, the Kremlin’s signature Sunday evening news program ran a segment quoting fellow pilots and commandos from Russia’s military intelligence service vowing revenge.

“We’ll find this person and punish him, with all the severity of our country’s laws, for treason and for betraying his brothers,” said one of the commandos, who was not identified. “We find everyone eventually. Our arms are long.”

How Ukraine gets defectors out

The defection of Kuzminov was a coup for Ukraine, orchestrated by a covert unit in the HUR, Ukraine’s military’s intelligence arm. The unit specialises in recruiting Russian fighters and running agents on Russian territory to carry out sabotage missions. Some soldiers from the unit have received specialised training from the CIA on operating in hostile environments.

While the unit had been 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 with knowledge of the operation.

In the early evening of August 9, 2023, Kuzminov took off in a military helicopter from an airfield in the Kursk region in western Russia for what was supposed to be a simple cargo delivery to another base in the country. With him in the cockpit were a technician named Nikita Kiryanov and a navigator, Khushbakht Tursunov. Neither soldier appeared to be aware of Kuzminov’s plans.

Shortly after takeoff, Kuzminov turned off the helicopter’s radio communications equipment and dove to an altitude of just under 20 feet to evade radar. Then he crossed into Ukraine.

In interviews with Ukrainian news media, Kuzminov was coy about what happened next. He said only that he had landed the helicopter at a prearranged rendezvous point in the Kharkiv region, just over 10 miles from the border, where he was met by HUR commandos.

“Everything went well,” he said in one interview.

The reality is more complicated. When he crossed into the country, Kuzminov surprised a group of Ukrainian fighters, who opened fire, according to another senior Ukrainian official. In the confusion, Kuzminov was shot in the leg.

What happened to his crewmates is less clear. A Russian television report about them, citing a medical examiner, claimed that the two had been shot and killed at close range and suggested that Kuzminov had killed them before landing. The senior Ukrainian official involved in the operation said this was not true.

“Our soldiers shot them,” the official said. “Otherwise, they would have killed Kuzminov and could have escaped in that helicopter.”

In interviews, Kuzminov said his crewmates were unarmed but never explained how they died.

The HUR clearly considered the mission a major success. Shortly afterward, General Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, announced that the operation would give confidence to other Russian soldiers who were considering defection. The intelligence agency even produced a documentary film about the operation to showcase its triumph.

Kuzminov went on a media tour, holding a news conference, giving interviews denouncing Russia’s war and calling on others to follow his example.

“You won’t regret it,” he said in the documentary. “You’ll be taken care of for the rest of your life.”

The Ukrainian government paid Kuzminov $US500,000 ($765,000) and provided him a Ukrainian passport and a fake name: Ihor Shevchenko. They also offered him a chance to join them in fighting Russia.

Instead, Kuzminov left Ukraine in October and drove to Villajoyosa, a small town on the Mediterranean coast popular with British and Eastern European tourists. There, he settled on the ninth floor of a modest apartment building about a 10-minute walk from the beach.

It was a curious choice for someone so explicitly targeted by Russian authorities for liquidation. The region is a well-known base of operation for Russian organised crime figures, some of whom maintain ties to the country’s intelligence services, Spanish authorities say.

How the killing went down

On the morning of February 13, a white Hyundai Tucson entered the garage under Kuzminov’s apartment building and parked in an empty spot between the elevators used by residents and the ramp leading to the street. Two men waited there for several hours, according to the senior Guardia Civil official.

“This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse the moment he planned his dirty and terrible crime.”

Sergei Naryshkin, Russian foreign intelligence service director

About 4.20pm, Kuzminov drove into the garage, parked and began walking toward the elevators. As he passed in front of the white Hyundai, the two assailants emerged, called out to him and opened fire. Although he was struck by six bullets, most of them in the torso, Kuzminov managed to sprint a short distance before collapsing on the ramp.

The two killers got back into the car and ran over Kuzminov’s body on their way out. The vehicle was found a few miles away, burned with the help of what investigators believe was a special accelerant. It took specialists a week to identify the make and model of the car and establish that it had been stolen – two days before the killing – in Murcia, a town about an hour away.

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A special unit in the Guardia Civil is carrying out the investigation under strict secrecy rules. Authorities have not publicly confirmed that Kuzminov was the person killed.

‘They’re everywhere’

Among the community of Russian and Ukrainian expatriates living in Villajoyosa, there was no question of who was behind the death.

“Everyone thinks the services took him out,” said Ivan, 31, who fled his home city, Kherson, Ukraine, at the start of the war. “They’re everywhere.”

Spain’s annual report on national security threats, published this month, said Russia had revamped its intelligence operations in the country after the expulsion of 27 Russian diplomats over the war in Ukraine. Although fewer in number, the report said, Russian spies continued to seek out ways to “destabilise Spain’s support for NATO”.

In the past, Russian officials have twisted themselves into knots trying to obfuscate the Kremlin’s connection to various assassinations around Europe, often in the face of clear evidence of state involvement. Kuzminov’s case is different. Senior Russian officials spoke of his death with barely disguised glee.

“This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse the moment he planned his dirty and terrible crime,” said Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is now the deputy chair of the country’s security council, said: “A dog gets a dog’s death.”

In contrast with the great fanfare that accompanied Kuzminov’s defection, Ukrainian authorities have been mostly quiet about the killing. Senior officials worry that it could dissuade others from following his example.

“Who will co-operate with us after this?” said one of the senior officials.

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“Russia will intensively spread propaganda — they’re already doing it — that they will find all 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.”