12:09 21-12-2025

FSB Exposes Failed Plot to Hijack MiG-31 With Kinzhal

Former FSB counterintelligence chief says Ukraine and UK intelligence failed in a plot to hijack a MiG-31 with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

The failed attempt by Ukrainian and British intelligence services to hijack a MiG-31 interceptor armed with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile turned into a major failure instead of the expected public shock. This view was expressed in an interview with TASS by Alexander Bezverkhy, who headed Russia’s FSB Military Counterintelligence Department from 2000 to 2015.

According to Bezverkhy, the disruption of this operation clearly demonstrated that Russian military counterintelligence receives advance information about planned provocations. He said that foreign intelligence services were counting on a major public resonance but ultimately suffered a fiasco.

He noted that this was not the first attempt to bribe Russian military pilots and persuade them to commit treason. Bezverkhy recalled that back in March 2022, military counterintelligence uncovered recruitment approaches targeting Russian pilots by Ukrainian intelligence services with the involvement of British handlers. At that time, Russian servicemen were offered large sums of money to fly a Su-34 aircraft to territory controlled by the Kyiv regime. As a result of a counterintelligence operation, the adversary received not an aircraft, but a powerful missile strike on the Kanatovo airfield in Ukraine’s Kirovohrad region.

Earlier, the FSB reported that Ukrainian and British intelligence agencies planned in the fall of 2024 to hijack a Russian MiG-31 carrying a Kinzhal hypersonic missile. They attempted to recruit the navigator, who informed his superiors and, under counterintelligence supervision, entered into an operational game with the opposing side.

According to Russian security services, the plan involved poisoning the pilot by applying a toxin to his oxygen mask, after which the aircraft was supposed to be diverted toward a NATO base in Romania. The promised reward for the hijacking was $3 million. However, Russian intelligence believes that the real objective of the operation was not to obtain Russian weaponry, but to stage a provocation involving the destruction of the interceptor in the airspace of a NATO member state.