The Ukrainian military and law enforcement officers lured a military aircraft out of Russia for several months. The enemy pilot, who agreed to cooperate, did not fly in the end. The operation was not a project of the SBU or the GUR, but of individual security officials, essentially volunteers.
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The SBU is investigating under two articles: “high treason” and “abuse of power.” According to journalists, the investigation began on August 4, a week and a half after the unsuccessful operation.
A UP source in military intelligence also claims that the participants in the operation allegedly handed over the Ukrainian air defense deployment sites to the enemy, and a train of Bayraktar drones burned down at the affected airfield. However, these facts are not mentioned in the official version of the investigation.
How was the operation planned?
In April 2022, amateur pilot and Aitovets Alexei (name changed for security reasons) learned that the Council allowed to pay a reward for the voluntary surrender of Russian equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. So he decided to persuade the enemy to adventure. On the Internet, he found the data of enemy pilots awarded for the war in Syria. Because of unofficial paid services, he found the contacts of the pilots and started a dialogue with them, offered to overtake the plane to Ukraine.
In total, the man tried to contact about a hundred Russians. In the end I narrowed them down to the three most serious ones.
Aleksey collected a dossier on them and, through acquaintances who had contacts in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, he managed to “get through” to Deputy Intelligence Chief Dmitry Usov. He took the materials collected by the Aitovite, and then did not continue cooperation.
The interlocutor of the publication in the Main Intelligence Directorate confirmed this information and added that ex-intelligence officer Roman Chervinsky also contacted the Main Intelligence Directorate. He was one of the intelligence officers who organized an operation in 2020 to detain the “Wagnerites”, luring them to Belarus.
Then Aleksey turned to an acquaintance of the Security Service officer Maxim (his name has been changed). This idea reached the leadership of the SBU, in particular, Ivan Bakanov. Maxim began work as an operative.
The pilots were asked for additional confirmation of the seriousness of their intentions. In particular, they sent videos of their planes. But in exchange, the Russians expected guarantees and money from the Ukrainian side. For each video, potential Russian traitors asked from 5 thousand dollars.
The SBU did not find the money for financing, so the operative went to look for them himself. It is here, the newspaper notes, that Roman Chervinsky appeared. He was familiar with the SBU officer Maxim in the service.
At the time of the operation, Chervinsky, deputy commander of a military unit in the Special Operations Forces. He assures that he coordinated the actions with his leadership, who approved the operation, the material says.
The UE turned to the MTR for a comment, they promised to work out the request, but did not provide an answer.
Later, the organizers of the transaction found the money “on the side.” Investigative journalist Khristo Grozev participated in the operation as a journalist. The operation was not a project of the SBU or the GUR, but of individual security officials, essentially volunteers.
According to the publication, the operation began to gain momentum in May 2022. The participants stated that it was authorized by the General Staff. A special working group was created in Kyiv. A soldier from the Air Force, Pavel (name has been changed), entered there. His help was required to test Russian pilots for professionalism.
Thus, we focused on three Russian pilots and considered several Su-series fighters and the latest modification of the Tu-22 bomber.
So, the pilot’s family had to go abroad, to Belarus or another country “friendly” to the Russian Federation. There they would have been given documents and money so that they could hide in Europe.
One of the pilots said that he did not want to leave with his wife, but with another woman, allegedly because of bad relations with his family. But when the operatives checked the mistress, she turned out to be an FSB agent. She also lied about not having a passport. This story was publicly confirmed by Hristo Grozev, the newspaper writes.
Roman Nosenko, 35, a married and childless Su-24 and Su-34 pilot, was the final candidate. However, he also aroused suspicion among the authors of the operation. His wife at some point left for Belarus. But I sat there for a few days and returned. Ukrainian intelligence officers again saw a lie: they were told a false date for the woman’s departure. Among the calls of the Russian woman, the numbers of the FSB officers appeared.
Nosenko explained that his wife is a psychologist in his military unit and, by the nature of her work, she communicates with the FSB, ”says one of the heroes of the story.
Such explanations could be true or false. The scouts decided not to give up. They understood that the enemy could play his game in parallel. And they assure: military secrets were not exposed.
The plan was this:
- The pilot’s family goes abroad, receives documents and part of the money.
- The pilot at the agreed time must fly into the Ukrainian space in a specific square and at a certain height. There he was met by trained Ukrainian soldiers: in the fields and on guard of the air defense. If the Russian violated some agreements, he would immediately be shot down.
- The pilot reports to his dispatchers that he was let down. Ukraine plays along with him by announcing the capture of the pilot. And at the site of the “damage” the wreckage is already waiting.
- The pilot flies at a low altitude so that he is not fixed by Russian radars. And he landed at the Kanatovo airfield in the Kirovohrad region. The Russian Nosenko himself proposed this point, that is, the object was already known to Moscow, it had already been fired upon more than once before the operation.
- The pilot is given new documents and buried in Ukraine or Europe.
- If there is a co-pilot on the plane, he will be captured and subsequently exchanged.
Also, the participants in the operation decided to concentrate more on obtaining secret information from the pilots.
We saw counterintelligence officers in charge of military airfields in Russia, about 14 airfields in total,” one of them said.
In order to finally destroy the escape route for the Russian, during video calls he was taken out to talk about the crimes of his leadership and the attitude towards the authorities of the Russian Federation.
The last time the Ukrainian team spoke with pilot Nosenko was shortly before the time when he was supposed to fly out for an operation. He confirmed his readiness. But in the end, instead of a Russian, Russian missiles flew to the airfield, the material says.
So, according to the material, on July 23, the organizers of the operation arrived at the Kanatovo airfield to meet an enemy aircraft. With them were several dozen more military SOFs. In addition, fighters from other military units served there. When the air raid alarm began to sound at 4.30 in the morning, most of the military at the airfield, according to the recollections of our interlocutors, went to cover.
Between 5.00 and 5.45 in the area near Kropyvnytskyi – from it to the airfield 15 km – explosions were heard. Later, the authorities reported that on that day the enemy fired 13 missiles into the region: “Caliber” and Kh-22.
The official investigation, the data of which was obtained by the UP, says that that morning 8 cruise missiles hit Kanatovo, one soldier was killed. 17 people received moderate or light injuries, including employees of the State Emergency Service. Buildings and some military equipment were damaged.
Rospropaganda has already boasted for two days that they “prevented the Ukrainian operation.” According to Chervinsky, investigators from the SBU came to him on August 10.
The SBU told the UP that it was investigating under two articles: “high treason” and “abuse of power.” According to journalists, the investigation began on August 4, a week and a half after the unsuccessful operation.
According to investigators, the military allegedly did not coordinate the operation on the GUR, which exceeded his authority. He, according to the SBU, independently sent the military to the airfield to meet the aircraft. Law enforcers consider the results of the shelling to be the consequences of the actions of Chervinsky, the newspaper writes.
A source in military intelligence also claims that the participants in the operation allegedly handed over the Ukrainian air defense deployment sites to the enemy, and a composition of Bayraktar drones burned down at the affected airfield. However, these facts are not only denied by Chervinsky himself. They are not mentioned in the official version of the investigation against him either.
Chervinsky considers the persecution to be politically motivated and links it to the case of the “Wagnerites”. He also convinces that politics began to guide his life again immediately after his appointment to the SSO in April 2022.
According to the military, his leadership was called from the President’s Office, outraged by the appointment of an ex-intelligence officer and insisted on a transfer. And then they demanded the disbandment of the unit where Chervinsky and another of his colleagues in the “Wagner” operation served, writes UP.
Grozev later wrote: “The entire intelligence of the FSB fought with its teeth against a bunch of, in essence, volunteers. And not for the first time.”
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.