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Last week, Spain witnessed shocking news which will have ripple effects across all of Europe. The Ukrainian military agency reported that Maksim Kuzminov, the Russian helicopter pilot who had defected to Ukraine last year in a secret operation, had been murdered in his home in the Spanish Mediterranean coast in the province of Alicante by unidentified gunmen who fired 12 shots at him. His car was found completely burned in a nearby town.
Those who have been following the war in Ukraine closely may remember that, in mid August of 2023, a Russian pilot defected from Russia to Ukraine with his Mi-8 AMTSh helicopter, as part of an elaborate sixth-month operation orchestrated by the Ukrainian GUR intelligence agency. Following his appearance in a high-profile press conference in Kyiv in September and after reportedly having considered joining the Ukrainian air force, he appears to have changed his mind and decided to move to Spain to live a quiet and peaceful life.
Little is known about this tragic event, and indeed, the Spanish Government has treaded lightly thus far. The Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, stated that “we have to let the Civil Guard do its job and for the investigation to progress”. Nonetheless, fingers will naturally be pointed at the Kremlin, and diplomatic sources are highlighting that this is a “very serious” matter that will lead to a “forceful response” if Kremlin involvement is confirmed.
Indeed, this murder coincides with the tragic death of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Siberian prison, as Putin tries to quash every and all resistance to his authoritarian grip ahead of the sham March 2024 Presidential elections in the Russian Federation, where Vladimir Putin is seeking a fifth term as President of the Russian Federation.
Furthermore, it is well known that the Kremlin has spread its poisonous tentacles across Europe in the past, with the Russian secret services having a long and infamous history of assassinations on European soil. Not so long ago, in 2018, the Kremlin struck in the historic city of Sailsbury in the United Kingdom, when two GRU military intelligence officers attempted to assassinate the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and her daughter. A decade before, in 2006, the whole world watched in horror as Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko died slowly and painfully in a hospital in London after having been poisoned with polonium by the FSB (successor of the infamous KGB).
This murder, coinciding with the death of heroic Russian opposition leader Navalny, is a timely reminder of what the Kremlin regime stands for, and what is at stake for Europe in the Ukraine war. To those who defend abandoning Ukraine to what would almost certainly be a defeat in the battlefield, the events of this week should be a wake up call about why Russia must be defeated in Ukraine. This isn’t just a territorial war concerning Ukraine, but an ideological struggle between two models. The European model of nation-states, freedom, democracy and family, or the Russian model of imperialism and authoritarianism, which in different points of history has used a different veil to justify its imperialism. During the Cold War it was communist ideology, whereas now Russia frames itself as the defender of the ‘oppressed’ Global South, supposedly a victim of Western ‘neo-colonialism’. It is also worth pointing out that Russia, despite predicating “family values”, is a regime that destroys families and sends thousands of fathers as cannon-fodder to Ukraine just to fulfill Putin’s distorted fantasy of history and his geopolitical delusions.
To conclude, Europe must remain vigilant of the threat that Russia poses, Europe must reinforce the eastern flank, and it is essential to continue supporting Ukraine until Russia is defeated in the battlefield.