Something is happening in Moscow, Russia. As I write this story it is 8:16 PM Saturday evening on 24 May 2025. That translates to 3:16 AM in Moscow, Russia.
For the past hour, Russian military aircraft have begun ferrying people out of Moscow. There are not fighter jets or cargo planes; they're Executive jets designed to comfortably carry passengers.
All the aircraft are headed east - toward the Ural Mountains.
Eight planes are shown in the image above. Four more in the image below:
Why is Moscow evacuating people starting at 2:00 in the morning, their time, on a Saturday night-into-Sunday morning????
UPDATE 8:39 PM EDT --
Five more military planes have now taken off from Moscow, bringing the total to 17 planes.
Airframe list:
Russian AF:
An-148-100E RA-61723 #14F11B
An-148-100E RA-61724 #14F11C
Tu-214 RF-64519 #14FC07
Tu-214PU-SBUS comms unit RF-64530 #14FC12
Tu-134A-3 RA-65689 #150099
Tu-134B-3 RA-65733 #1500C5
Tu-134A-3 RA-65992 #1501C8
Tu-154M RA-85686 #154EB6
Il-62M RA-86539 #15520B
Il-62M RA-86559 #15521F
223rd Flight Unit State Airline:
IL-76MD RA-78847 #1533FF
Il-76MD RA-78850 #153402
Tu-154M RA-85123 #154C83
Tu-154B-2 RA-85426 #154DB2
Tu-154B-2 RA-85563 #149C77
Tu-154B-2 RA-85586 #154E52
Roscosmos:
Tu-154M RA-85655 #194E97
