Ukraine Secretly Tried to Get 3 Russian Pilots to Defect

'Like in a movie': Ukraine's secret plan to escape three Russian pilots

Two stories with different interpretation. The first, a Russian one published in the summer of 2022, tells the story of a supposedly successful FSB campaign that thwarted the Ukrainian hijacking of three aircraft with the help of fugitive pilots. They allegedly communicated with the Ukrainian secret service on the instructions of the FSB and also accepted bribes. Now Ukraine is revealing its side of the story. The pilots of the Su-34, Su-24 and …

Ukraine Secretly Tried to Get 3 Russian Pilots to Defect

“At first, the Russian pilots all thought it was a scam. But they agreed to go along with it anyway, especially after the initial payments came through,” Yahoo News reports. “Last summer, a group of Ukrainian volunteers, working closely with their country’s intelligence service, apparently came close to persuading three Russian aviators who were in the midst of bombing Ukraine to defect with their warplanes in exchange for $1 million a piece.” “…