On February 13, 2024, Spanish authorities found Maksim Kuzminov dead with six bullet wounds in the parking garage of this apartment complex in the Spanish town of Villajoyosa. Kuzminov, a Russian helicopter pilot, defected to Ukraine in 2023 and had been living in Spain under the name of Ihor Schevchenko. He had started communications with Ukrainian intelligence regarding his anticipated defection around a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. On August 9, 2023, Kuzminov flew his Mi-8 transport helicopter towards the Ukrainian border, where he defected. Ukrainian authorities paid him USD $500,000 for defecting. Although Spain’s Civil Guard never officially confirmed that the body found in Villajoyosa was Kuzimov’s, they identified a Russian former KGB officer a Russian police colonel present in the country at the time of the killing as “persons of interest” in the case. Spanish media reported at the time of the killing that Spanish intelligence thought that the Kremlin was behind the assassination.