A representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (MDI) Andriy Yusov informed that the MDI immediately rejected the idea of hijacking the plane, which was proposed by former employee Roman Chervinskyi.
He said this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
"But at the stage of the idea, the MDI was approached with it, this idea was immediately rejected as unrealistic to implement and potentially extremely risky, which, unfortunately, happened in the end," he noted.
According to Yusov, at the moment there is no public talk about the real damage from the implementation of these plans, and in fact the damage is much more.
He reminded that the investigation is ongoing, and the Main Directorate of Intelligence has handed over all available information to the law enforcement officers. Yusov emphasized that the MDI has nothing to do with this so-called operation and these events.
What is it about?
The case concerns the failed hijacking of a Russian plane, which, according to the investigation, led to a Russian missile attack on the Kanatove airfield in Kirovohrad region in July 2022. The plan was that a recruited Russian pilot would fly to Ukraine, where Ukrainians would meet him, help him hide, and pay him.
Two days after the attempted hijacking of the plane, the FSB of Russia announced that it allegedly thwarted the operation of Ukrainian military intelligence. Propaganda Russian media accused Bellingcat project journalist Christo Grozev of participating in the operation.
Grozev, in a comment to Radio Liberty, denied his participation in any special services operations. According to him, the Bellingcat team filmed an investigative documentary about how the FSB and Ukrainian special services have been playing the game for many years, trying to deceive each other.
On his Twitter, Grozev added that his participation in this operation was limited to the fact that he was documenting the events for his film. The investigator called the special operation, which Russia tried to present as its achievement, "a serious mistake by the FSB", because the special service revealed the identities of dozens of counterintelligence officers, their work methods and other secret data
- On April 21, the SBU declared the suspicion to ex-intelligence officer Roman Chervinskyi. The SBU claims that Chervinskyi arbitrarily organized a failed special operation to hijack a Russian military plane, which led to the leakage of data about the airfield.
- On April 20, it became known that the Security Service of Ukraine initiated a criminal case due to the unsuccessful operation of the Ukrainian military to hijack a Russian plane.
- On April 24, the SBU detained Roman Chervinskyi, and on April 25, the court ordered a preventive measure against him. The ex-spy will be held in custody for two months without bail.