(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s Federal Security Service said it foiled an attempt by Ukraine to recruit a pilot willing to defect with a supersonic strategic bomber jet.
Ukrainian agents offered money and the prospect of Italian citizenship to a pilot in return for flying a Tu-22M3 plane to Ukraine, the service known as the FSB said Monday, according to the Interfax news agency. The FSB also accused unspecified security services of NATO countries of involvement.
Russian agents became aware of the plan and obtained information that allowed its military to attack the Ozerne air force base in northwestern Ukraine, the FSB said, without providing further details. It’s unclear what happened to the pilot.
Ukraine hasn’t commented on the allegations so far. The FSB claimed a few months after the start of the February 2022 invasion that it prevented a similar Ukrainian attempt to persuade Russian pilots to defect with military aircraft.
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The Tu-22M3 bomber is a modernized version of a Soviet-era jet that Russia uses to fire long-range missiles against targets in Ukraine. In April, Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed it had shot down one of the bombers for the first time since the war began.
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