A Russian "Ruslan" Aircraft Carrying Missiles For The "Iskander" System Flew To Kaliningrad
- 4.09.2026, 9:15
In 2022, the aircraft was used to deliver missiles to the Machulishchi airfield in Belarus.
A Russian An-124-100 "Ruslan" military transport aircraft, registration number RA-82040, flew to the Kaliningrad Region. Its route was tracked by the monitoring service AirNav Radar.
On September 1, 2026, the aircraft was first spotted near Narva, not far from the border with Estonia. The aircraft’s last known position was recorded near Liepāja, Latvia, after which it stopped transmitting location data accessible to civilian systems.
As early as September 3, RA-82040 made the return flight. Tracking systems first detected it near Medovoye in the Kaliningrad Region. From there, the “Ruslan” headed toward St. Petersburg, after which data transmission ceased as the aircraft entered Russian airspace.
The aircraft has previously been used for military transport
RA-82040 has a history of performing military transport missions. In March 2022, it was reported that Russia had used an An-124 to deliver missiles for the “Iskander” operational-tactical missile systems from Russian territory to the Machulishchi airfield in Belarus.
RA-82040 was among the aircraft that carried out such transport operations at that time. Along with it, the aircraft RA-82014 and RA-82038 were used to transport the missiles.
The aircraft is currently subject to U.S. sanctions. On May 19, 2023, it was added to the SDN sanctions list of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control under the RUSSIA-EO14024 program. In the sanctions entry, RA-82040 is directly linked to Russia’s 224th Flight Squadron.
This same “Ruslan” also came to the attention of observers in September 2025. Following the attack by Ukrainian drones on Moscow on September 23, Russian Telegram channels circulated a video of a large transport aircraft flying over the city at an extremely low altitude.
The “Agency” news site determined that the aircraft in the video was indeed the An-124-100 RA-82040. That evening, the plane took off from Vnukovo and climbed to an altitude of approximately 4,200 meters.