FSB reports Ukrainian intelligence agency's failed attempt to recruit pilot and hijack strategic bomber

Ukrainian special services tried to recruit a Russian military pilot to hijack a Tu-22M3 strategic bomber. This was reported by the FSB Public Relations Center (PRC), RIA Novosti reports .

They claim that the pilot was offered money and Italian citizenship in exchange for landing the missile carrier in Ukraine, but he told the FSB officers about it. As a result, the Russian counterintelligence agents who entered the "operational game" allegedly managed to "uncover the involvement of NATO special services" in the hijacking attempt, and also obtain information that allowed them to strike the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Ozernoye airfield.

The Center for Public Relations published a video showing the pilot who they allegedly tried to recruit, stacks of hundred-dollar bills, an Italian passport in the name of Elena Golub, as well as screenshots of his correspondence with an alleged employee of the Ukrainian special services,

"No morals, no ethics. He immediately started threatening my close relatives. He demanded that I set fire to the aircraft. He said: "Give me the data on the planes, the tail numbers, the technical condition, the schedule of the regulations." I went to the command and told everything. My interlocutor did not even hide that he was from the Ukrainian special services. He introduced himself as Pavlo, and offered to hijack a combat aircraft to the territory of Ukraine. But not just any aircraft, but a long-range bomber-missile carrier, a carrier of nuclear weapons," says the man in the flight suit in the footage, whose face is hidden, his voice is changed, and his name is not given.

Tu-22M3 bombers have been used by Russia to carry out cruise missile strikes against targets in Ukrainian territory since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The aircraft forms the backbone of the long-range strategic aviation of the Russian armed forces and is capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

In April 2024, Ukrainian intelligence reported that it had shot down one of these aircraft with a modified Soviet-made S-200 anti-aircraft missile. The Russian Defense Ministry then acknowledged the loss of the aircraft, but claimed that it crashed due to a “technical malfunction.”

In July 2022, the FSB also reported that it had allegedly managed to stop an attempt to recruit Russian Aerospace Forces pilots by Ukrainian special services. According to the special service, the Russians were offered money and citizenship of one of the EU countries for them and their families in exchange for landing combat aircraft on Ukrainian territory.

In the summer of 2023, Russian Mi-8 helicopter pilot Maxim Kuzminov hijacked it and landed it at an airfield in the Kharkiv region. For this, he received half a million dollars and a Spanish passport under a different name. However, having settled in Spain, as Ukrainian military intelligence later stated , he led an immodest lifestyle, often appeared in establishments popular among Russians and Ukrainians, and wrote to female acquaintances from Russia.

As a result, in February 2024, Kuzminov was killed - unknown assailants shot him with a pistol and then ran him over with a car in the parking lot of the house where he lived.

To get the main news faster, subscribe to our telegram and twitter .