A video posted to social media appeared to show a U.S. military transport aircraft descending into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday, a flight the Kremlin reportedly said it knew nothing about.
Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 indicated that the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III departed Joint Base Andrews in Maryland early Sunday afternoon bound for Riga, Latvia. The U.S. military plane later flew from Riga to Moscow on Tuesday morning.
According to Reuters, the most recent direct flight by a U.S.-registered jet from Europe to Russia occurred in January, when special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, traveled to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine.
A Department of War spokesperson told News Outlet on Tuesday, “We have nothing to provide on this subject.” News Outlet has also contacted the White House and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow seeking comment.
A U.S. military transport plane approaches Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2026, in this screen grab taken from a social media video. (Reuters)
The Kremlin said it had no information regarding the latest flight, Reuters reported.
After the January meeting involving Witkoff and Kushner, Putin aide Yury Ushakov said, “our counterparts arrived from Davos after taking part in a series of events together with President Donald Trump, including those concerning the Ukraine settlement.”
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum at the Kremlin in Moscow on Jan. 22, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
“They offered what can be called their first-hand accounts of these events and shared their impressions, as well as their latest thoughts and assessments regarding the meeting between the President of the United States and [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy in Davos” during the World Economic Forum, he added.
A Boeing C-17 Globemaster III plane is seen departing Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Overall, I can say that the focus of the meeting between the President of Russia and US representatives was to obtain information resulting from the contacts the United States had with the Ukrainians and Europeans in order to define further steps between our two countries,” Ushakov also said.
