For some he was a hero and for others a traitor. Is about Maxim Kuzminov, the 28-year-old Russian pilot who was shot dead in Alicante . The same story is being told very differently on the two sides of the border separating Ukraine from Russia. They only agree on something: Kuzminov’s case is very present in the news, both in the country from which he fled and the one in which he took refuge.

In fact, there is no Russian or Ukrainian television that has not talked about him. Although since he deserted last August, the Kuzminov case was told through two very disparate approaches. “My name is Maxim Kuzminov Germanovich, I am a helicopter pilot,” the young man said when he arrived in Ukraine in the summer.

On the one hand, the Ukrainian version considered him a hero and the media recounted his adventures. “He flew at a low altitude, between 5 and 10 meters with his radio silenced”, details a journalist. While another presenter recounted the call effect that Kuzminov’s defection caused among Russian troops: “More than 25,000 Russian soldiers have requested surrender after Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov flew an M18 helicopter to Ukraine.”

On the other hand, there was the Russian approach, in which they accused the pilot of having been bribed by “Ukrainian special services with 500,000 euros”. They even called him a “traitor.”

Now the same thing is happening with his murder, while from Moscow claims that Kuzminov “hijacked a Russian military helicopter”from Kyiv they claim that the young man “crossed to the Ukrainian side carrying an M18 helicopter with a lot of secrets.”

The same story and two different stories. Some use it to motivate and others use it to frighten.