He Federal Security Service (FSB) Russia claimed to have thwarted an alleged Ukrainian attempt to recruit pilots for divert a MiG-31K fighter towards a NATO base in Romaniaa complaint that gives an idea of the dimension of the covert war that is developing between Moscow and kyiv parallel to the battlefield. How was the alleged operation?
According to a statement from FSBintelligence agents Ukraine“under the supervision of British special services”, they tried recruit Russian pilots offering them 3 million dollarsand the promise of citizenship in a western countryso that they would fly a MiG-31K equipped with the Kinzhal hypersonic missile to the NATO base in Constanta, Romania.
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In that place, according to the FSBthe plane could have been shot down with the aim of mounting a false flag operation and possibly justify action against Russia.
The FSB said that the The United Kingdom played a supporting and coordinating role in the alleged operation to capture the Russian pilots.
A Russian MiG-31K fighter. (Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/AP).
Why was the supposed plan foiled? The Federal Security Service stated that the pilots “They acted in a patriotic manner” and they immediately communicated the contacts of alleged Ukrainian intermediaries, which would have made it possible to mount a counterintelligence operation to thwart the plan.
As a test, The FSB showed messages, recordings and statements on Russian state television which, according to them, involve an intermediary linked to the operation.
Furthermore, the FSB mentioned that the platform Bellingcatbased in United Kingdom, It would have been used as “information coverage” or “front” for the operation, something that the organization itself categorically denied. calling the accusation “absurd and baseless.”
There is no independent verification of what was reported by the FSB.
The governments of Ukraine, United Kingdom and Romania They have not reacted to the complaint.
Has it happened before? In the context of the war in ukraine started in February 2022, there is a precedent that went around the world.
Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov after defecting. (Video capture / Ministry of Defense of Ukraine).
In August 2023, the russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov defected to Ukraine taking with him a Mi-8 helicopter. On board the ship were two other Russian soldiers who did not know of its intentions and who were shot dead while trying to flee when the device landed at a Ukrainian base.
According to Ukrainian sources, Kuzminov would have contacted the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence (GUR), after which an operation was agreed, called Operation Synytsiawhich culminated on August 9, 2023 with its landing in Ukraine in a Mi-8.
At the time, kyiv announced that it would receive a reward equivalent to $500,000 and guarantees for his family.
Six months after his desertion, Kuzminov died riddled with bullets in the Spanish town of Villajoyosa, where he lived under a false identity.
What are the MiG-31K and the Kinzhal hypersonic missile like?
He MiG-31K It is a modified version of the Soviet interceptor MiG-31adapted to carry the Kinzhal hypersonic missile Kh-47M2one of the most sophisticated weapons in the Russian arsenal.
The modification of the fighter includes structural reinforcements and a central pylon capable of supporting the enormous missile Kinzhal.
With flight capacity of almost three times the speed of sound (Mach 2.8) and an operating ceiling higher than 20,000 metersthe plane can launch the Kinzhal from long distances, allowing Russia to hit targets at more than 1,500 kilometers without leaving its own airspace.
The missile, of some four tons of weightcan reach speeds of up to Mach 10.
An airman examines a Russian Air Force MiG-31K fighter carrying a Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missile. (AFP).
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He Kinzhal can carry a conventional warhead estimated at around 480–500 kilos, or a nuclear charge.
Each unit of the system—plane and missile—represents a high-value strategic asset, although Its exact cost is not public.
The number of MiG-31K fighters in service is small, estimated at only a few dozen modified ones.
Moscow considers MiG-31K a key piece of its deterrence capacity, and therefore the FSB’s complaint about an attempt to capture it takes on a strong symbolic and propaganda load.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the Kinzhallaunched from MiG-31K and Tu-22M3 aircraft, has been used by Moscow in selective attacks against high-value targets in Ukrainian territory.
The Kinzhal hypersonic missile. (AFP).
Russia announced his first attacks with the Kinzhal in March 2022, when he attributed to hypersonic missile the destruction of an alleged underground weapons depot in Deliatyn and a fuel depot in Konstantinovka.
Throughout 2022 and 2023 the weapon was used intermittently to attack critical infrastructure such as warehouses, logistics facilities and ports. Moscow claimed it also neutralized allied defense systems. Among the most significant episodes are launches around Odessa and several attacks in which Russia claimed to have eliminated strategic military targets.
For its part, Ukraine has reported numerous Kinzhal interceptions and takedowns thanks to air defense systems supplied by the West.
The first demolition of a Kinzhal widely reported by kyiv occurred in May 2023, when Ukraine claimed to have intercepted one of these missiles with a system Patriot.
