Ex-Ukrainian official reportedly found dead in pool at Spain resort where Russian military defector was killed

CBS News

21-07-2025

A Ukrainian man who previously worked as a senior official in an anti-organized crime agency was found dead late last month in the pool at his apartment complex in the southern Spanish resort town of Villajoyosa. Ukrainian and Spanish media say Ihor Hrushevskyi's body was found late last month at the same apartment complex where a Russian military helicopter pilot-turned-defector was gunned down in February of 2024.
El Español newspaper's edition for the Alicante region in southeast Spain said it had interviewed at least 20 residents of the Cala Alta apartment complex, where neighbors found the 61-year-old Ukrainian floating face-down in the pool on June 29.
The newspaper cited local authorities as saying there were no apparent signs of a violent attack, but that foul play was not being ruled out as the investigation proceeded. They said a medical crisis, such as a stroke or heart failure, could have been a factor, but told the newspaper that the death appeared suspicious.
Many residents of the resort, which is popular with Russian and Ukrainian expats, told El Español they weren't even aware of the death until reporters came asking questions. The paper said its efforts to dig up personal information on Hrushevskyi were challenging, which it put down to the nature of his former employment in Ukraine.
"The confidentiality inherent in one of the Ukrainian government's elite units turns Ihor into a ghost, with no trace in official documents or public information," El Español said.
According to the newspaper, Hrushevskyi moved to the Cala Alta apartment complex about a year and a half before he was found dead.
Ukraine's Pravda daily newspaper also reported that Hrushevskyi had worked as a senior official at the Interior Ministry's Department for Combating Organized Crime during the 1990s. Russia's state-run TASS news agency also reported the details of the story, citing El Español's report.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities on the death, though the foreign ministry was quoted by national public broadcaster Suspilne as saying the Ukrainian consulate in Spain was handling the repatriation of Hrushevskyi's body.
His body was discovered about a year and a half after police found the bullet-riddled remains of former Russian military helicopter pilot Maksim Kuzminov in the parking garage of the same apartment complex in Villajoysa — a town on the Mediterranean coast whose name means "joyful village."
Kuzminov, who was killed at the age of 28, first made headlines in his home region when he defected from Russia, flying his Mi-8 helicopter below radar in August 2023 across the border into Ukraine.
He handed over the helicopter, sensitive military equipment and top secret Russian intelligence to Ukrainian authorities before appearing on Ukrainian television and calling the war launched by President Vladimir Putin "a genocide of Ukrainian people."
Just days after he was killed, Russian state news agencies quoted Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, as calling Kuzminov a "traitor and criminal" who had become "a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime."
Naryshkin did not confirm or deny Russian involvement in the former pilot's murder, but months earlier, Russian state TV said the GRU intelligence agency had "been given the order" to eliminate Kuzminov.
CBS' 60 Minutes reported last year that the Ukrainian government gave Kuzminov about $500,000 and a new Ukrainian identity, and officials warned him not to leave the country due to the threat of possible retaliation by Russia. But he decided to risk a life in the sunshine of Villajoyosa regardless.