Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirms death of former Interior Ministry official in Spain

Ukrainian national Ihor Hrushevskyi, a former senior official from Ukraine’s Interior Ministry’s Department for Combating Organised Crime, has died as a result of drowning in the Cala Alta residential complex in Spain, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed.

Spanish media outlet El Español earlier reported on the "mysterious" death of Hrushevskyi at the Cala Alta residential complex in Villajoyosa, where Russian pilot Maksim Kuzminov was murdered in 2024.

In response to journalists’ enquiries, the Foreign Ministry stated that, as the Consulate General of Ukraine in Barcelona reported, the death was caused by drowning.

The ministry also noted that consular assistance was provided for the preparation of the necessary documents for the repatriation of the body to Ukraine.

The death has raised suspicion among residents of Cala Alta, as in February 2024, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine confirmed that Russian pilot Maksim Kuzminov, who transferred a Russian Mi-8 helicopter to Ukrainian territory in the summer of 2023, had been found dead in Spain.

In June 2024, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources in Western intelligence, reported that the killers of Kuzminov were paid by Russian state officials in Vienna.