A former high-ranking Ukrainian police official has been found dead under mysterious circumstances in the same Spanish residential complex where Russian defector pilot Maxim Kuzminov was assassinated earlier this year, El Español reports.
Ihor Hrushevskyi, 61, a former senior official in Ukraine's Interior Ministry's Department for Combating Organized Crime, was discovered floating in a community pool at the Cala Alta residential complex in Villajoyosa on June 29. The death occurred just 503 days after Kuzminov's murder at the same location.
According to El Español, Hrushevskyi was found "face down and without pulse" in what "appeared to be a drowning" around 9:30 pm. A Ukrainian neighbor and young people passing through the common areas discovered the body and attempted CPR, but "could not save his life," the publication states.
The circumstances surrounding Hrushevskyi's death have raised suspicions among residents. While the Ukrainian showed no signs of violence, he was bleeding from one ear, leading some to suspect a stroke. Others question how someone could drown in a pool that "does not exceed 1.50 meters in depth."
Hrushevskyi had recently purchased an apartment in block 1 of the complex and was renovating it. His background in law enforcement remained largely unknown to neighbors - of approximately 20 residents consulted by El Español, "only one knew his name" and that he worked in organized crime fighting.
Ukrainian legal records show Hrushevskyi served as head and authorized representative of the Interior Ministry's Department for Combating Organized Crime in the Cherkasy and Kirovograd oblasts in 1993. The department was officially dissolved in 2015 as part of police reforms aimed at "cutting corrupt practices" and aligning with European standards.
The location adds an unsettling dimension to the death. Kuzminov, the Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine with a sophisticated Mi-8 combat helicopter in exchange for 500,000 euros, was "shot dead on 13 February 2024" in the complex's garage. The pilot had been living under a false identity when Russian Foreign Intelligence Service agents tracked him down.
Of the "more than 3,000 kilometers separating Alicante from Ukraine," both deaths occurred within meters of each other - "one in the garage and another in the pool," El Español notes. Some residents fear this proximity may not be coincidental, particularly given that Russian President Vladimir Putin "used to vacation in his luxury refuge in Altea Hills" before the war and has contacts who "know the area perfectly."
The Wall Street Journal later reported that the killers received payment from Russian officials in Vienna.
