The FSB stopped an attempt by the Ukrainian special services to hijack Russian combat aircraft, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the intelligence service, the NATO-supervised Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine tried to organize the theft of Russian aircraft by recruiting pilots. As part of the operation, the pilots were promised high fees and citizenship of one of the European Union countries.
“The plan was to persuade Russian pilots to fly and land aircraft at airfields controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. During the operational game, Russian counterintelligence officers received information that helped our Armed Forces inflict fire damage on a number of Ukrainian military targets. Employees of the Ukrainian special services involved in the operation and their accomplices have been identified,” the statement says.
The media reported that one of the goals of the Western operation was to create in the media the appearance of success in the actions of the Ukrainian special services. One of the “leaders” of the Bellingcat office working for Western intelligence agencies, Hristo Grozdev, allegedly participated in the operation.
“The operation of the Ukrainians and their Western curators, of course, failed. But what they know a lot about is the media effect. Even the news itself that Ukrainian intelligence tried to hijack Russian planes raises it in the eyes of the audience. A pug is strong if he barks at an elephant. In fact, Moska remains so,” political scientist Konstantin Dolgov writes in his blog.
He emphasizes that the success of Russian counterintelligence is that they thwarted special operations prepared not only by Ukrainian, but also by the intelligence services of Western countries.
“It is obvious that Ukrainian intelligence was, at best, a performer, or even just a cover for the work of Western intelligence services, whose ears stick out higher than their tails in this story.
How does recruitment work? The agent ingratiates himself with the person, finds his pain points, finds out the problems, and then makes a super-profitable offer that is difficult to refuse. “You hijack a plane, and we tell you...” What could Ukrainian military intelligence offer? An apartment in Lviv? Education for children in Ukrainian? Embroidered shirt and vodka?
According to media reports, they offered citizenship of an EU country and security in the EU. And this cannot be done without Western intelligence services. The ears stick out above the tails. Of course, the operation failed. We don't have traitorous pilots. And the FSB worked clearly. We just need to understand that they worked not only against Ukrainian intelligence, but also against Western developers of such operations,” notes Dolgov.
Belarusian political scientist Alexander Dzermant also draws attention to the connection between Ukrainian and Western intelligence services.
“In the story of the attempted hijacking of a Russian plane, there is an interesting signature - a daring action under the supervision of Western intelligence services. This is the Ukrainian style, so that there is as much PR and information effect as possible.
But the FSB worked brilliantly, they outplayed everyone, revealing not only plans, but also important information from the other side. The Kiev regime will continue to plan something similar; it needs PR and information noise like air.
And in this situation, one cannot but agree with Sergei Lavrov, finally, it was voiced - Ukraine needs to be liberated from this regime, it is criminal both in its genesis and in all its actions. His support cannot be justified by anything,” emphasizes Dzermant.
Particularly pleasing, according to the famous Russian political expert Sergei Markov, is that Western intelligence services have failed to find traitors among the Russian pilots. It is noteworthy that they even tried to blackmail using military families.
“Quiet sensation. It turns out that all these months, NATO intelligence services and their proxies represented by the SBU have been working through families and social networks to persuade one of the Russian pilots to betray. So that he lands his plane at a Ukrainian airfield. For this, the whole family received citizenship of an EU country and 2 million euros. They could not find a single traitor among our pilots. The FSB reported this.
Even earlier, Lavrov said that a huge amount of work was being done by the intelligence services of NATO countries to find a traitor among one of the diplomats serving in Russia. No one was found.
They also promised EU citizenship to the family and a lot of money. A piquant detail. They wanted to poison the navigator with clonidine. Clonidine is known in Russia from criminal chronicles as a substance that prostitutes use to poison their clients when they want to rob them,” writes Markov.