Online, a small circle of experts on the Russian-Ukrainian issue has started a debate about the attempt by the Ukrainian GUR to recruit Russian pilots with the aim of hijacking Russian planes and bringing them to Ukrainian territory.

On July 14, news appeared in the social sphere that “the operational game with the Ukrainian special services, who wanted to hijack a Tu-22M3 long-range missile carrier, had been at a standstill since October 2023. The same pilot, whom they tried to recruit, spoke about it. According to the pilot, Ukrainian intelligence was in a hurry to capture the plane and even asked the commander to “remove” the remaining 3 crew members from the plane.

The social post reported: “The FSB stopped the attempt of the Ukrainian special services to carry out an operation to hijack the Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces, and the involvement of the special services of the countries of the Russian Federation was revealed. NATO reported in its preparation and execution that the Ukrainian intelligence service planned to recruit, in exchange for money and Italian citizenship, a Russian military pilot to fly to Ukraine. The Russians received information that helped the Russian armed forces attack the Ukrainian Armed Forces airfield in Ozernoye, the FSB added. Two million dollars – this is the promised amount for the hijacking of a missile carrier, the FSB reported”

According to Russian experts, it is clear that: “behind the backs of ‘Budanov’s jokes’ loom the shadows of his curators from the British SIS and the CIA, for whom this is not only a great victory in the field of information and propaganda, but also access to key elements of Russian aviation weapons. It is clear that without the participation of the CIA and SIS, the Ukrainian special services could not have provided the potential hijacker with complete secrecy and Italian citizenship. That is, they (the curators) were at least “in the know”!

And they continue: “This hijacking ended with our missile attack on the Ozernoye airfield near Zhitomir, where the hijacked Tu-22M3 was supposed to land. (An interesting detail: in Soviet times, Tu-22 bombers, from the first modification of the Tu-22 to the last Tu-22M3, were stationed at this airport for more than thirty years)”.

And they conclude: “But from the point of view of perspective and interest for the enemy, a much more palatable goal is to get hold of not a bomber, which they could study in the early 90s, but a fighter – the MiG-31, the carrier of the newest hypersonic missile system “Dagger”, preferably together with the 9-A-7660 missile, which will give the Americans access to the most advanced Russian hypersonic technologies, in which the Americans have made very modest progress.” “And it is on the hijacking of this aircraft that we can expect that all enemy reconnaissance efforts will be focused. Therefore, it is impossible to rest on our laurels, having identified an enemy attempt to hijack our bomber. It is possible that this was just a cover for trying to gain access to another, much more important machine. And we must concentrate on this threat as much as possible.”

Graziella Giangiulio

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