American military aircraft landed at Vnukovo, mission remains unknown

A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft landed on the morning of August 25 at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport. The aircraft was operating flight with tail number RCH4555, and the purpose of its arrival in Russia is not publicly known for the time being.

According to available information, the plane took off from Riga around 8:50 a.m. Moscow time and arrived at Vnukovo around 10:00 a.m. Subsequently, its movement was no longer visualized in public flight tracking systems. In such cases, this may mean that the plane is already on the ground or "is outside the coverage area" of the service.

The flight arrived from Latvia

Two days earlier, on August 23, the same RCH4555 aircraft landed in Riga after a flight from Camp Springs in the U.S. state of Maryland. The area is home to Andrews Air Force Base, which is known as the base for the presidential aircraft Air Force One.

It is unclear whether the Boeing C-17 was transporting people, equipment, or other cargo. Reuters agency states that it was unable to determine exactly what was on board the plane during its flight to Moscow.

Kremlin: No scheduled meetings

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that he does not have information regarding the landing of the American military aircraft at Vnukovo. According to him, no meetings with representatives of the U.S. administration are scheduled at the Kremlin this week.

The appearance of the aircraft is attracting attention also because of expectations in recent months that Russia would be visited by U.S. presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as by Jared Kushner – Donald Trump's son-in-law. During previous stages of contacts regarding the war in Ukraine, the two were identified as American intermediaries in communication between Moscow and Kyiv.

At the moment, the negotiation process between the parties remains frozen, and there is no official confirmation that flight RCH4555 is linked to a diplomatic or political mission.

Previous incident at Vnukovo

A similar landing of a U.S. Air Force aircraft at Vnukovo was recorded in February 2025. At that time, a Gulfstream C-37B business jet arrived in Moscow.

It later became clear that Alexander Vinnik, founder of the crypto exchange BTC-e, was transported to Russia on it. He was returned to the country as part of an exchange between Moscow and Washington.

Vinnik was exchanged for American teacher Marc Fogel, who was sentenced in Russia to 14 years in prison on charges of "drug smuggling".