According to the FSB’s statement, the plot involved an offer of $3 million and citizenship in a Western country to the Russian pilot in exchange for cooperation.

Citing FSB reports, Russian media stated that agents from Ukraine’s military intelligence service initiated the scheme in 2024. An individual posing as a journalist approached the MiG-31 pilot under the pretext of conducting an interview. When that effort failed, the conspirators turned their attention to the jet’s navigator (co-pilot), trying to lure him with promises of a lavish payout and a new life abroad.

The FSB claims that a senior Ukrainian intelligence officer later joined the operation personally, revealing that the plan was being coordinated under the direct supervision of Ukraine’s top leadership, European allies, and Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency.

To strengthen the navigator’s resolve, the conspirators reportedly sent him a photo of Maksim Kuzminov, a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine in 2023 by hijacking an Mi-8 helicopter. Kuzminov, however, was found dead in Spain in February this year, according to the report.

In the second phase of the operation, the navigator was allegedly instructed to poison his commander’s oxygen mask during a flight and then redirect the Kinzhal-armed MiG-31 toward Odesa and the NATO base at Constanța in Romania. Once the aircraft entered the area, NATO forces were supposed to shoot it down midair, framing the incident as an act of “Russian aggression.”

The plan, according to the FSB, was scheduled to be executed on November 4, 2025. NATO fighter jets had already taken to the skies near the Romanian border in anticipation, but Russian intelligence intervened in time, foiling the plot before it could unfold.

Following the incident, the Russian Air Force launched retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian military installations. The FSB reported that Russian forces used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to destroy the Defense Ministry’s secret radar and intelligence center in Brovary, as well as the Starokostyantyniv Air Base in the Khmelnytskyi region, where U.S.-made F-16 fighters were reportedly stationed.

Russia described the attacks as a measured response to Ukraine’s dangerous provocation, which, according to Moscow, was designed to discredit Russia internationally and drag NATO into a direct confrontation.