On Tuesday morning, the FSB’s Public Relations Centre issued a statement saying that the security service had allegedly ‘uncovered and thwarted’ an operation by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence “to hijack a Russian Air Force MiG-31 supersonic high-altitude fighter jet, which is equipped with a Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched missile, and fly it abroad .”
The FSB claims that Ukrainian military intelligence officers attempted to recruit Russian pilots, promising to pay them $3 million.
‘The special service then planned to send the aircraft with the Kinzhal missile to the area where NATO’s largest airbase in south-eastern Europe is located, in Constanta, Romania, where it could be shot down by air defence systems,’ Interfax quotes the FSB as saying.
In its press release, the Russian special services also mention ‘British intelligence,’ which is allegedly involved in planning a ‘large-scale provocation.’
The FSB did not provide any evidence. Ukraine has not commented on the statement by the Russian special services.