MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has foiled a NATO-backed attempt to hijack a Tu-22M3 strategic bomber to Ukraine, the FSB said in a statement.
"The Russian Federal Security Service has foiled another attempt by Ukrainian intelligence agencies to conduct an operation to hijack a Tu-22M3 strategic bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces," the statement reads.
According to the FSB, "Ukrainian intelligence planned to recruit a Russian military pilot by offering him money and Italian citizenship in order to make him hijack the aircraft to Ukraine." Evidence has been found that intelligence agencies from NATO countries were involved in preparing and carrying out the operation, the FSB added.
"The information that Russian counterintelligence officers obtained in their operational game helped our army hit the Ozyornoye airfield of the Ukrainian armed forces," the statement said.
The Russian pilot was offered $3 mln for hijacking the Tu-22M3 strategic bomber, according to the photo of his correspondence with a Ukrainian intelligence officer released by the FSB.
"You will get three million," the intel agent wrote. The correspondence makes it clear that $1 mln was expected to be paid by the Ukroboronprom defense company. A video released by the FSB showed bundles of US dollars.
The pilot was contacted via the Telegram messenger. "No sense of morality or ethics. They asked me to set aviation equipment on fire and started to threaten my family members," the pilot said in the video. He was also asked to provide information about Russian planes, including their tail numbers and technical condition. "I went to my commanders and told them everything," the pilot said. According to him, the man who contacted him introduced himself as Pavlo; he made no secret of being a Ukrainian intelligence officer. "He suggested I hijack a plane to Ukraine. Not just any plane but a long-range bomber, a carrier of nuclear weapons," the pilot pointed out.
The Tu-22M2 is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic bomber designed to hit naval and ground targets with missiles and air bombs; it is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional weapons.