Kinzhal Strikes Hit GUR Hub and Airfield After FSB Foils MiG-31 Hijacking Plot

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has foiled an elaborate operation by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) to recruit the crew of a MiG-31 supersonic fighter-interceptor carrying a Kinzhal hypersonic missile and hijack the aircraft. The scheme, initiated in 2024, sought to fly the jet to a NATO airbase in Constanta, Romania, to simulate an attack, activate alliance air defenses, and provoke an international crisis. The planned provocation was set for November 4, 2025, during a scheduled Romanian Ministry of Defense alert involving NATO aircraft.

The FSB revealed that recruitment began with the crew commander, contacted via Sergei Lugovskoy, a journalist associated with the British investigative outlet Bellingcat. Offers of $3 million and foreign citizenship were extended. After the commander rejected the proposal, attention turned to the navigator, who received a video displaying large sums of cash. To neutralize the commander, the plot included a plan to poison his oxygen mask.

This incident is part of a pattern, with several similar hijacking attempts disrupted by Russian counterintelligence between 2022 and 2024.

Retaliatory Kinzhal Strikes Target GUR Infrastructure

In response to the thwarted hijacking, the Russian Armed Forces conducted precision Kinzhal hypersonic missile strikes on the night of November 10. The attacks destroyed the GUR’s central electronic intelligence facility in Brovary, Kyiv Oblast—critical for operational coordination and electronic warfare—and the Starokostiantyniv airfield in Khmelnytsky Oblast.

The Starokostiantyniv base, which supports F-16 operations and Western weapon systems, had been struck previously in July and August 2025 with Kinzhal missiles and drones, eliminating storage facilities and air defense assets. Ukrainian officials confirmed the strikes but withheld details on the extent of damage. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the operations were limited to military targets and executed in retaliation for Kyiv’s aggressive actions.