US military plane lands in Moscow, Kremlin says it knows nothing

A US Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport on Tuesday, a news agency reported citing flight tracking data. This triggered speculation over the unexplained purpose of the highly unusual flight at a time when US-Russia contacts over the Ukraine war have lost momentum. The aircraft, operating as RCH4555, flew from Riga, Latvia, to Moscow, according to publicly available Flightradar24 data. It departed Riga at around 8:50am Moscow time and landed at Vnukovo shortly after 10am.Flight-tracking data showed the Boeing C-17, carrying the US-registered tail number 07-7181, had arrived in Riga on August 23 after departing from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, near Washington. It then flew from Riga to Moscow on Tuesday, landing at Vnukovo at around 0700 GMT. Before landing.motorcade with American license plates spotted in Moscow.

Motorcade with American license plates spotted in Moscow.

At around 10AM MSK, a US military C-17 jet landed in Moscow's Vnukovo Airport.

The Kremlin was vague and stated it had no plans of meeting US officials this week. There's no explanation for the sudden meeting and… pic.twitter.com/fA6cwP3GxM

— Spetsnaℤ 007 ???????? (@Alex_Oloyede2) August 25, 2026

But neither Washington nor Moscow has publicly explained why the aircraft was in Russia or who — or what — was aboard. The Kremlin added to the mystery by saying it had no information about the flight.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters there were no plans for meetings with representatives of the US administration this week and said he did “not have such information” when asked about the aircraft.
The flight attracted particular attention because direct journeys by US-registered aircraft to Russia have become highly unusual. According to Reuters, the last direct flight of a US-registered jet from Europe to Russia took place in January, when US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travelled to Moscow for Ukraine peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.