The hero Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine may have revealed his location in a phone call to his former lover before he was found riddled with bullets in Spain after being shot by the Kremlin ‘hit squad’.

The defected Russian military helicopter pilot who was shot down in Spain this week may have given his location to hitmen with a phone call inviting his ex-girlfriend to visit him in Alicante, it has been revealed.

Captain Maksim Kuzminov was found riddled with bullets earlier this month in an underground car park in Villajoyosa, near Alicante, after an attack allegedly orchestrated by the Kremlin.

The 28-year-old had made himself a target of Russian death squads by fleeing his home country in a stolen Mi-8 helicopter last August and landing it at a Ukrainian military airfield.

Living under a new identity in Spain – and enriched by the Ukrainians after his defection – he had begun to build a new life for himself, free from the horrors of war.

But it is believed he made a fatal mistake by contacting a former flame and inviting her to his new address.

‘We know he invited an ex-girlfriend to Spain and then he was found dead. That phone call could have been intercepted by the Russian secret services,” Spanish media report.

Meanwhile, sources close to the investigation claimed that Russian ammunition was used in the attack to warn other deserters of the reach and murderous intentions of the Kremlin security apparatus.

The respected Alicante newspaper Informacion reported today: ‘Although the exact caliber or brand has not been revealed, the fact that the ammunition is Russian-made confirms suspicions that the dead man is not the 33-year-old Ukrainian man the documentation said he was. with the mentioned, but 28-year-old Captain Kuzminov.

“Sources close to the investigation believe that the killers used Russian ammunition, so there is no doubt that the execution, with its exemplary overtones, came from Russia and was the direct and announced consequence of the high-profile desertion. ‘

Kuzminov was shot six times on February 13 after being chased from the second floor of a parking garage beneath a large residential area in Villajoyosa, near Benidorm.

A car linked to the crime and believed to have been driven by a getaway driver who worked with the gunman was later found burned out in nearby El Campello.

Spanish investigators are working on the theory that the killers were hired hitmen who have probably since left the country.

They are analyzing CCTV footage and are expected to officially confirm that Kuzminov was the victim once they have the results of fingerprint and DNA tests and submit a full report to an investigating judge.

Although it was initially reported that Kuzminov worked in the residential area where he was shot dead, it later emerged that he was staying in an apartment he was renovating.

Operating under an alias that saw him adopt the profile of a 33-year-old Ukrainian man, he had used his newfound wealth – reportedly £400,000 – to buy property from a real estate agency with Russian links.

This, together with the ill-advised phone call to his ex-girlfriend, is said to have alerted the Russian security services to his whereabouts.

Last year, anonymous Spetsnaz officers from Russia’s GRU military intelligence service were shown on Russian state television making it clear that an “order” had been given to liquidate Kuzminov.

State broadcaster Rossiya 1’s Vesti Nedeli channel told viewers in a chilling broadcast: “The order (to kill Captain Kuzminov) has been received, its execution is a matter of time.”

One Spetsnaz officer said: “We will find the man and punish him for betraying his brothers, to the fullest extent of the law of our country.”

A second officer simply said, “He won’t live . . .”

It comes after independent Telegram channel Volya – which monitors both sides in the war – linked the slain pilot’s case to the murky circumstances surrounding the death of 55-year-old multi-millionaire Sergey Protosenya.

The former oligarch, a vice chairman of Russian gas company Novatek, was found hanged in spring 2022 after allegedly killing his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria as they slept in a Catalan seaside resort.

But the gruesome crime scene appeared to be a set-up, and Protosenya is just one of dozens of Russian energy oligarchs who have met an awkward end since the war in Ukraine broke out.

Volya claims that both Russian secret services and long-standing mafia clans are active in Spain, giving the Russian state terrifying reach.

‘The Russians have been living in Alicante, Altea, Benidorm and neighboring small towns for two years now (since the start of the war), providing security for cargo and ships, money used for settlements, and escorting ‘export-import ‘-ships. “specialists coming from the Russian Federation, some of whom wear FSB shoulder straps, and some (GRU military intelligence),” the Volya report said.

‘Among these people are professional murderers or saboteurs. It was they who murdered the former top manager of Novatek Sergei Protosenya in the spring of 2022 in Lloret de Mar.

‘The murder of Protosenya was related to the purge of personnel who knew a lot about withdrawing money to the EU and its legalization there.

“They tried to cover up that death as an alleged domestic murder… But they did not disguise themselves with Kuzminov,” Volya reported.

“They promised to punish him – they punished.”

It warned: ‘While European politicians express concern about Navalny’s murder, Russian assassins and intelligence services are active and, unfortunately, successfully operating throughout Europe and other parts of the world.’