Spain’s national intelligence agency is probing the death of a top Ukrainian official found dead in the same Costa Blanca location where a defected Russian pilot was assassinated nearly 18 months ago. Igor Hrushevsky, 61, a former Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs employee, was discovered face down and lifeless in the pool of a Villajoyosa apartment complex near Benidorm on June 29.

The grim discovery happened at the gated estate where Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian helicopter pilot branded a traitor by Moscow after defecting to Ukraine in 2023, was gunned down on February 13 last year. Spanish police, who concluded Mr Kuzminov was likely killed by hitmen linked to Russian intelligence, have not made arrests. Initially, Civil Guard investigators treated Hrushevsky’s death as an accident, stating: “No evidence was found pointing to it being the result of a crime.” Town hall sources described it as a drowning.

However, Spanish news outlet El Espanol reported the CNI intelligence agency — Spain’s equivalent of MI5 and MI6 combined — is now investigating whether Mr Hrushevsky’s death was another targeted assassination by operatives linked to Vladimir Putin’s regime.

The CNI, accountable to Spain’s Ministry of Defence, rarely comments on ongoing cases. Alicante Civil Guard has yet to respond to the report.

El Espanol cited intelligence sources saying: “Agents are conducting inquiries to determine whether there is a connection between Kuzminov’s murder and Hrushevsky’s death.”

The report added: “This is a matter of national security and intelligence service activity. The investigators are working discreetly and independently from the Civil Guard.”

It suggested both killings may have been carried out in the same manner — professional hitmen contracted by Russian intelligence via organised crime networks.

A local resident of the Villajoyosa complex, identified as Blanca, told reporters: “People say Hrushevsky suffered a heart attack. But he didn’t drown — the pool water barely reaches my neck, and I’m short.”

Mr Kuzminov fled Russia in August 2023, stealing a Mi-8 armoured helicopter and landing it at a Ukrainian military base. Putin placed him on a most-wanted list after the defection embarrassed Moscow.

On February 13 last year, Kuzminov was shot six times at about 5pm after being chased through the basement car park of the residential estate. A getaway car was later found burnt out nearby.

Initially, investigators believed Mr Kuzminov was a 33-year-old Ukrainian under a false identity.

Later reports showed he was renovating a flat at the estate where he was killed.

Mr Hrushevsky was found by a Ukrainian neighbour bleeding from one ear and unconscious. Attempts to revive him failed.

He had lived at La Cala Alta complex since February and was once head of organised crime in Ukraine’s Cherkasy and Kirovohrad regions before police reforms disbanded the unit in 2015.

A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Alicante said in response to today’s reports about a CNI probe: “The information is the same we gave out earlier.

“All the necessary tests were conducted and at no time did the investigation point towards a violent or criminal death because there was no evidence to suggest it.

“Likewise the result of the autopsy corroborated the fact the death was due to drowning.”

A police source added: “We don’t have the means to establish if the CNI really is investigating possible links with last year’s assassination. In that specific area, 80 per cent of the population is from Ukraine.”

Speaking after Mr Kuzminov’s death last year, Nikolai Petrov, who was at the time consulting fellow on the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, said it was highly likely Kuzminov had veen assassinated on the orders of Vladimir Putin himself.

He explained: “There are no other reasonable explanations.

“It’s bad news for Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence and a clear signal to any ‘potential traitors’ on the Russian side.”