MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Ukrainian military intelligence offered the Russian Aerospace Forces pilot of an electronic warfare helicopter between 600,000 and 750,000 dollars for hijacking the aircraft and transporting it to the Czech Republic, the Rossiya-24 TV channel reported.
"Sergey, an employee of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, offered the pilot between 600,000 and 750,000 dollars to hijack the helicopter and bring his family to the Czech Republic for permanent residence. Initially, they planned to transit through Turkey to Poland or Latvia, from there to Ukraine and then to the Czech Republic," the TV channel said.
The correspondent also reported that the Ukrainian intelligence officer obtained the phone number of the pilot's wife and persuaded her to leave Russia before the helicopter was hijacked. "These are the usual methods of the Ukrainian secret service to then blackmail by taking the pilot's family hostage. This Sergey also suggested poisoning the crew of the helicopter, which consisted of three people. Sergey sent the exact recipe for the poison: a mixture of medical drugs that can be bought in an ordinary pharmacy. The Ukrainian officer recommended that the mixture be put in a vacuum flask for tea, which the crew would drink during breakfast before the flight," he added.
The operation to mislead the enemy was carried out by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) since November 2023, the correspondent emphasized.
Earlier, the FSB press office said that it had foiled an operation by Ukrainian military intelligence to hijack a Russian Aerospace Forces electronic warfare helicopter. As a result of the work of Russian counterintelligence officers, the locations of the Ukrainian air defense facilities and units of the Ukrainian armed forces were revealed and later attacked.