As Moscow's invasion of Ukraine nears the two-month mark, Russian news outlet Lenta.ru reports that a U.S. military plane was seen near the badly damaged Russian missile cruiser Moskva.
Citing data from Swedish flight tracking site Flightradar, state-owned Lenta reports that a U.S. Boeing P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine patrol aircraft was flying close to the stricken ship, allegedly damaged after a Ukrainian attack Wednesday.
The Moskva is the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and the Kremlin said Thursday that the entire crew was forced to evacuate after a fire overnight. It did not acknowledge an attack.
Flying to an unknown destination, the Poseidon, which was developed for the U.S. Navy, reportedly was in eastern Romanian airspace, about 43 miles from the Russian warship around 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to Lenta.
According to the ADS-B Exchange flight tracking site, the U.S. plane was spotted near the village of Zhurilovka in eastern Romania.
The flight crew periodically switched off the transponder, Lenta reports, citing Russian site Avia.pro.
The Russian vessel was located in the western part of the Black Sea, leading experts to point out that the Poseidon could also fly close to the ship, Lenta reports.
Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC show the Moskva steaming out of the port of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula on Sunday.
Maksym Marchenko, the governor of the Odessa region, across the Black Sea to the northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians struck the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused "serious damage." Russia’s Defense Ministry said ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire and that it was working to determine the cause.
The Neptune is an anti-ship missile that was recently developed by Ukraine and based on an earlier Soviet design.
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