According to official media on Tuesday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed to have thwarted an attempt by British and Ukrainian agents to entice Russian pilots to pilfer a MiG-31 aircraft equipped with a Kinzhal hypersonic weapon for $3 million.
The hijacked aircraft was to be flown toward a NATO air base in the Romanian city of Constanta, where it might have been shot down by air defenses, according to the FSB, according to the RIA news agency.
The FSB, the primary successor to the KGB of the Soviet era, said that Ukrainian military intelligence had attempted to recruit Russian pilots for $3 million in order to take the fighter, and that Ukraine and Britain had planned a large-scale “provocation” using the hijacked aircraft.
The measures taken have thwarted the Ukrainian and British intelligence services’ plans for a large-scale provocation,” RIA cited the FSB as saying.
State TV showed pictures of messages and recordings of a man who they said was working for Ukrainian and British intelligence and had offered $3 million to a Russian pilot to fly a MiG to Europe and that the pilot had also been offered citizenship.
Reuters could not independently verify the account.
Russia’s Kinzhal is an air-launched ballistic missile that Moscow calls hypersonic, capable of very high speeds and maneuvering flight paths intended to make it difficult for air defenses to track and intercept.
Russia has long cast Britain as its main enemy. Moscow accuses London of stoking the Ukraine war and British intelligence of helping Ukraine to mount a series of operations deep inside Russia.
Britain casts the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an imperial-style land grab by Moscow. London has repeatedly warned that Russian intelligence is trying to sow mayhem across Britain and Europe to undermine democracy.