The flight-tracking website Flightradar24 reports that a US Air Force transport aircraft touched down at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday. The Kremlin, however, claimed to have no knowledge of the aircraft. The news agency Reuters reported that the aircraft, a Boeing Globemaster with a US-registered tail number, had taken off from Riga, Latvia, for Moscow at around 0700 GMT.
Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for the Kremlin, informed reporters on Tuesday that no talks with US government officials were scheduled for this week.
The information also revealed that the plane flew from the US Camp Springs airport close to Washington, DC, to Riga on August 23. According to Flightradar24 data, the airplane departed from the US Air Force’s Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sunday afternoon just before 5 p.m. ET. The US president and other high-ranking officials utilize the site as their main military base for official air travel.
When special envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in January for peace negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine, it was the last time a US-registered aircraft flew straight from Europe to Russia.
The C-17 Globemaster’s unexpected appearance has sparked a number of ideas because it is intended for the heavy-capacity, long-distance transportation of soldiers and military equipment.
The i Paper claims that rumors suggest a possible prisoner or diplomatic exchange. This comes after preliminary conversations earlier in the year and the high-profile release of former US Marine Robert Gilman earlier in August 2026.
Even though peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are still very much at a standstill, a covert diplomatic channel might still be an option.
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