Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said that Ukrainian and British intelligence agencies jointly attempted to hijack a Russian Air Force MiG-31 fighter jet, which was equipped with the “Kinzhal” hypersonic missile failed while British and Ukrainian intelligence base was destroyed.
The plan was directly supervised by Ukraine’s top leadership, European allies, and British intelligence. Under the plan, the Russian pilot was promised three million dollars and citizenship of a Western country.
The Russian news agency, citing an FSB report, said that Ukrainian military intelligence agents began the conspiracy in 2024. A man posed as a journalist and contacted the MiG-31 pilot under the pretext of an interview. After the pilot became frustrated, the plan was passed on to the pilot’s navigator (co-pilot). The navigator was offered a large sum of money and a foreign residence to convince him to hijack the plane.
According to the FSB, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official later joined the conspiracy and said that the plan was directly supervised by the Ukrainian top leadership, European allies, and British intelligence (MI6).
The Russian intelligence agency further said that the navigator was sent a photo of Maxim Kuzmenov, a Russian pilot who betrayed his own country in 2023, as an example, by hijacking an Mi-8 helicopter and flying it to Ukraine. According to the report, Kuzmenov was found dead in Spain in February this year.
In the second stage of the conspiracy, the navigator was instructed to poison his commander’s oxygen mask, then fly the plane equipped with the “Kinzhal” missile to Odessa and the NATO base “Constanza” in Romania, where NATO forces were to shoot down the plane in the air as planned to present it as an “aggression” by Russia.
According to the FSB, this plan was to be implemented on November 4, 2025, for which NATO fighter jets were scrambled due to a Romanian border alert. However, Russian intelligence took timely action and thwarted this plan. After this incident, the Russian Air Force retaliated against Ukrainian military bases.
According to the FSB statement, the Russian Air Force used a “Kinzhal” missile to target the Defence Ministry’s secret radar and intelligence centre in the Ukrainian city of Brovary, as well as the Starokostyantyniv airbase in the Khmelnytskyi region, where American-made F-16 aircraft were deployed.
Russia says the attack was a response to “Ukrainian dangerous provocations” aimed at globally discrediting Russia and pushing NATO into direct conflict.
