AN-124 with tail number RA-82030 flew out from Moscow at approximately 9 a.m., as seen from the Flightradar24 tracker. UPD: He landed in Minsk around 10.20.
The plane belongs to Russian state airline “224 flight squad”, subordinate to the Ministry of Defense. Both the airline and the plane itself are under American sanctions for the transportation of personnel and equipment of PMC “Wagner”. The sanctions list was published in May 2023. RA-82030 regularly visits Syriavisible on Flightradar24.
The day before, board RA-82030 arrived in Moscow from the African continent. Then most of the flight took place with the radar turned off, but on the evening of June 28 the plane briefly appeared on the tracker, taking off near Kampalathe capital of Uganda. This was not the first flight of RA-82030 to Africa associated with the activities of the Wagnerites: on May 13, 2023, local bloggers received photos of how a cargo plane unloaded two L-39 trainer aircraft in the capital of the Central African Republicwhich the PMC transferred to the local authorities.
June 25 – immediately after the Prigozhin uprising – RA-82030 is already flew to Minsk. Then he spent a day in the Belarusian capital.
AN-124, also known as “Ruslan”, one of the world’s largest cargo aircraft, is capable of transporting equipment weighing up to 120 tons – versus standard 30 tons. It holds four helicopters of the MI-8 family or 880 military personnel with full equipment.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”