FSB claims to thwart Ukrainian-British plot to seize MiG-31 jet
According to the FSB, Ukrainian operatives had attempted to persuade Russian pilots to defect, but the real intent was to have the aircraft shot down in Romanian airspace, triggering a confrontation between Russia and NATO. The agency claimed that the mission was coordinated by Ukraine’s military intelligence service (HUR) in partnership with the UK’s MI6.
One MiG-31 pilot told investigators that he was first contacted last year by a man identifying himself as Sergey Lugovsky, who said he worked as a researcher for the investigative group Bellingcat, which has received Western funding. The pilot said Lugovsky initially asked for technical consultations before later offering financial incentives for defection.
When that attempt failed, another agent using the alias Aleksandr allegedly approached the aircraft’s navigator, proposing $3 million and a foreign passport in exchange for diverting the plane toward a Romanian airbase near Constanta.
Kiev has a history of offering money and asylum to defectors. In 2023, Russian pilot Maksim Kuzminov flew a Mi-8 helicopter into Ukraine with the help of the HUR, though his two unaware crewmates were killed during the operation. Kuzminov was later found dead in Spain, where he had been living under a new identity.
The FSB also recalled an earlier 2022 incident in which former Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev was accused of assisting a failed Ukrainian effort to recruit Russian airmen. Grozev denied the allegations, insisting he had only been filming a documentary and that messages used as evidence against him were fabricated.
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