Russian Ruslan Aircraft That Delivered Iskander Missiles in 2022 Flies to Kaliningrad Region

A Russian An-124-100 Ruslan military transport aircraft has flown to the Kaliningrad region.

The AirNav Radar monitoring service recorded the flight route.

The aircraft, registered as RA-82040, also flew similar missions in 2022, transporting missiles for Russia’s Iskander missile systems from Russia to Belarus.

On September 1, 2026, the service first detected the aircraft near Narva, close to the Estonian border, and recorded its last position near Liepāja, Latvia.

After that, the aircraft stopped transmitting its position data available to civilian tracking systems.

On September 3, the An-124-100 Ruslan, registration number RA-82040, made the return flight.

Monitoring systems first detected the aircraft near Medovoye in the Kaliningrad region. It then headed toward St. Petersburg, with data transmission ceasing as the aircraft entered Russian airspace.

As of today, the aircraft remains under U.S. sanctions. It was added to OFAC’s SDN List on May 19, 2023, under the RUSSIA-EO14024 program. The OFAC listing directly links the aircraft to Russia’s 224th Flight Detachment.

The aircraft was also spotted in September 2025. Following a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow on September 23, Russian Telegram channels shared footage of a large transport aircraft flying at an extremely low altitude.

The Agency outlet established that the aircraft shown in the footage was in fact the An-124-100, registration RA-82040. The aircraft departed Vnukovo that evening and climbed to an altitude of approximately 4,200 meters.

In March 2022, Militarnyi reported that Russia had been using An-124 aircraft to transport missiles for Iskander operational-tactical missile systems from Russian territory to the Machulishchy airbase in Belarus. The aircraft identified as having conducted these transfers included RA-82014, RA-82038, and RA-82040.

An-124 Ruslan in Russian Aerospace Forces service

As of today, Russia operates a limited fleet of An-124-100 Ruslan heavy strategic airlifters. According to open-source information, 13 An-124 aircraft are associated with the Russian Aerospace Forces. Twelve are assigned to Russia’s military transport aviation component, while one aircraft is associated with a Russian Air Force research institute.

The primary military operator of the An-124 in Russia remains the 224th Flight Detachment. It has historically been associated with Migalovo airfield in Tver region; however, its An-124 aircraft are based at, or regularly operate from, Seshcha airfield in the Bryansk region.

The unit conducts airlift missions in support of the Russian Ministry of Defense, including transporting oversized and exceptionally heavy cargo. This specialization has historical roots: the detachment was established in 1979 to provide air transport support to Soviet forces during the war in Afghanistan.

The 566th Military Transport Aviation Regiment, a regular unit of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ Military Transport Aviation branch, also uses Seshcha and operates An-124 aircraft.

According to the Russian aircraft-spotting resource Russianplanes.net, Russian military entities currently have more An-124 aircraft on record than broader estimates of the active fleet suggest. Some of these aircraft are in storage, meaning that the total number of airframes listed in registries does not indicate that all of them are currently airworthy or capable of conducting flight operations.