Russia says Ukrainian-British plot to hijack hypersonic missile foiled

Pilots of Russian warplane tempted with money and Western citizenship to take part in false flag op, Moscow asserts.

Russia has thwarted a Ukrainian-British plan to hijack a MiG-31 jet equipped with a hypersonic missile and to use it to carry out a false flag attack on a major NATO airbase, the country’s state security service reported.

The FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, said in a statement carried by state media on Tuesday that the alleged operation was directed by the main intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and “its UK handlers”.

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The plot sought to convince a Russian pilot to fly a MiG-31 armed with a Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile – a key weapon in Moscow’s arsenal – to the Romanian city of Constanta, where NATO is building its largest airbase in Southeastern Europe.

The plane would then be shot down by air defences, providing a “large-scale provocation”.

Russian state television showed pictures of messages and recordings of a man who they said was working for Ukrainian and British intelligence.

The individual reportedly offered $3m to the pilot to take part in the scheme, as well as citizenship of any European country of his choosing.

An FSB official claimed that British-founded group Bellingcat – which is branded as “undesirable” by the Russian government – was involved in the operation or was used as a cover or intermediary, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

The Russian security service criticised its Ukrainian and British counterparts for showing a “lack of originality in plots”, pointing to a similar allegation it made in 2022, months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At the time, the FSB said the United Kingdom had participated in a Ukrainian operation to hijack an advanced Sukhoi Su-34 fighter by buying off the pilot and offering Western citizenship.

Bellingcat has not immediately responded to the accusation of its involvement in the latest claim. The organisation did reject the FSB’s framing in the 2022 allegations.

Russia, Ukraine and its Western allies persist in fighting a vicious information war as the war on the ground shows little sign of easing.

Russian ground forces have been pushing deeper into eastern Ukraine in an attempt to take control of more land and resources, but movement on the front line remains incremental.

The two sides are also engaged in a war of attrition in the skies as they launch hundreds of aerial strikes against each other on a daily basis.

Russian attacks, some of them using Kinzhal missiles, have heavily damaged Ukrainian energy infrastructure over the past week.