And then the Americans suddenly asked Kyiv to pause its shelling of the Russian capital from Monday to Wednesday.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow on a C-17 military transport plane, a direct flight from Riga, Latvia, where he had arrived on Sunday from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

The Kremlin

The plane landed at Vnukovo Airport 17 km from the Kremlin around nine in the morning and flew back to Latvia that evening along the same route, less than a day’s notice.

Tight-Lipped

No one has officially confirmed the visit, neither the White House, nor the CIA, nor the Pentagon. All are maintaining a deathly silence.

The Kremlin, through Peskov, has declared that it knows nothing whatsoever about any American aircraft.

Only the Latvian side broke the silence: the Latvian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the flight through its airspace was properly coordinated and authorised, but Riga refused to comment on who was on board or why.

Three aircraft, one CIA Boss

According to CNN and Axios sources, two other aircraft, a C-130 and a C-40, arrived in Riga with Ratcliffe, and it was the C-130 that then continued on to Moscow.

All three aircraft are workhorses of the US Air Force: The C-17 Globemaster III, a heavy transport capable of lifting a tank or a mobile hospital, typically carries cargo and troops

The C-130 Hercules

The C-130 Hercules, its smaller and much more modest sibling. It is used for the same tasks, but on a smaller scale; and the C-40 Clipper, a converted Boeing 737, a service aircraft for transporting high-ranking officials. Something like a working version of Air Force One.

Jerusalem post

The seating arrangement itself, why the CIA director needed three different aircraft at once, already hints that this mission was not a solo outing.

A source told The Jerusalem Post that several days before the visit, the Americans asked Kyiv to suspend strikes on Moscow and other cities from Monday to Wednesday, as if ordering silence for the meeting.

A Russian special forces plane took off from Vnukovo Airport following a US Air Force plane, according to Flightradar24 data. Let readers know what you think

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