Moscow says it thwarted a Ukrainian-British plot to hijack a fighter jet.

Moscow says it thwarted a Ukrainian-British plot to hijack a fighter jet.

Russia’s security service has revealed in a statement that a Ukrainian and British attempt to hijack a Russian MiG-31 fighter jet equipped with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile was successfully thwarted.

The intelligence service said that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate had lured the Russian pilots to carry out the operation, offering them $3 million and Western citizenship.

The plane was reportedly to be flown to a NATO base in Romania after being hijacked.

The Kinzhal hypersonic missiles are part of a new Russian weapons package unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a speech in 2018. He called the missiles “invincible” and said they could evade US-made missile shields and target any part of the world.