"A real failure" — a veteran of the special services Bezverkhny about London's attempt to hijack the MiG-31

An unsuccessful attempt to hijack a MiG-31 interceptor fighter with a Dagger by the Ukrainian and British special services was a real failure for them instead of the expected major public outcry. This was stated by the head of the FSB Military Counterintelligence Department in 2000-2015, Colonel-General Alexander Bezverkhny, in an interview with TASS.

"A vivid confirmation of the fact [that Russian military counterintelligence officers receive proactive information about the preparation of various provocations] was the recent suppression of an attempt by the Ukrainian and British special services to hijack a MiG-31 interceptor fighter armed with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile. They [the enemy's special services] were counting on a great public outcry, but they failed," he said.

Bezverkhny noted that this was not the first attempt to "buy" Russian pilots and persuade them to treason. "Back in March 2022, military counterintelligence officers uncovered recruitment approaches to Russian pilots by the special services of Ukraine and their British curators. Our servicemen were offered in exchange for a large sum of money to overtake the Su-34 aircraft to the territory controlled by the Kiev regime. As a result of the operational game at the agreed time, instead of the promised aircraft, the enemy received a powerful missile strike on the Kanatovo airfield in the Kirovograd region," he recalled.

As the FSB reported, Ukrainian and British intelligence planned to hijack a Russian MiG-31 with a Dagger hypersonic missile in the fall of 2024. They tried to recruit a pilot-navigator, but he informed his superiors and, under the control of counterintelligence, entered into an operational game with the enemy.

According to the foreign intelligence services, the Russian navigator was supposed to poison the pilot by applying poison to the oxygen mask. After that, he had to direct the plane towards the NATO base in Romania. He was promised $ 3 million for the hijacking. But, according to the intelligence services, the goal of enemy intelligence was not to get Russian weapons, but to arrange a provocation with the destruction of a fighter in the airspace of a NATO member country.