An unusual mass departure of VIP and special mission aircraft was spotted from Moscow in the immediate aftermath of Ukraine receiving permission to use ATACMS and Storm Shadow in Russia.
Some unusual movements were spotted on flight tracking websites when Ukraine was granted the permission to strike deep into Russia with long-range weapons. In fact, in the night between Nov. 19 and 20, 2024, nine Russian special mission aircraft were observed departing Moscow towards the east of the country.
The fact is particularly interesting as the nine aircraft departed in just a 30–40-minute timeframe and were headed for the alleged locations of the bunkers used by President Putin and high-ranking Russian government officials. The reason behind this mass departure is unclear, with theories ranging from an evacuation to emergency drills.
At midnight on the night of the 19th/20th, Nine Russian military/gov’t passenger transports depart Moscow Chkalovskiy in the span of 30 minutes. Most head east.
This was the night that Ukraine attacked the 67th GRAU Arsenal and the day after long-range weaponry was given the green light by the US.
— Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555.bsky.social) 25 novembre 2024 alle ore 04:41
The mass departure
We collected the data freely available from a variety of sources and, with the help of expert OSINT tracker EvergreenIntel, we were able to get a better understanding of these flights. Some of these aircraft belong to the government-owned 223rd Flight Unit State Airline, as shown by the CHD callsign, while others belong to the Russian Air Force and the Rossiya Special Flight Detachment.
Here is a list of the aircraft involved in the mass departure:
- Tu-154B-2 RA-85605, CHD64404, 154E65, from Chkalovskiy to Koltsovo;
- Tu-154B-2 RA-85563, RFF64407, 149C77, from Chkalovskiy to Tolmachevo;
- Tu-154B-2 RA-85559, RFF64415, 154E37, from Chkalovskiy to Perm;
- Tu-154M/LK-1 RA-85655, no callsign, 154E97, from Chkalovskiy to the north;
- Tu-154M RA-85843, 64408, 154F53, from Chkalovskiy to Koltsovo;
- Tu-154M RA-85155, CHD64410, 154CA3, from Chkalovskiy to Perm;
- Il-62MK RA-86539, no callsign, 15520B, from Chkalovskiy to Tolmachevo;
- Il-62M RA-86561, 78258, 155221, from Chkalovskiy to Tolmachevo via Koltsovo;
- Tu-214ON RA-64519, RFF64279, 14FC07, from Chkalovskiy to Tolmachevo.
Many of these aircraft have since returned to Moscow and were spotted during other flights, such as the Il-62M RA-86561 which has been used by government officials for visits to multiple west Africa countries. The presidential Il-96-300 aircraft were apparently not involved in these flights.
While it might be unrelated, in the evening of Nov. 20, a Tu-214PU-SBUS airborne command post equipped with the SBUS-214 (Spetsyalnyi Bortovoy Uzel Svyazi) communication suite flew from Chkalovskiy to Koltsovo, where it stayed until Nov. 25.
As always, this volume of aircraft movements might mean something but could also mean nothing at all, since no one knows the real reason for these flights. On average there are about 20 flights of these specialized aircraft each day, but they are distributed throughout the day, while here there are nine aircraft in a very short timeframe.
Russian military, government and civilian heavy lift aircraft seen in the past 24 hours: 18 total.
4 An-148s + SBUS to Chklaovskiy.
7 heavy transports to the east.
Deputy PM for energy complex returns direct from Africa.
— Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555.bsky.social) 30 novembre 2024 alle ore 23:38
Noteworthy aircraft
Among the aircraft observed, three deserve a special mention: the Tu-154M/LK-1, the Tu-214ON and the Tu-214PU-SBUS. While the latter could be associated with the movement of high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense, the other two’s presence is more difficult to explain.
The first aircraft, the Tu-154M/LK-1, is in fact a cosmonaut trainer which was modified to train the pilots of the Buran reusable spacecraft, the Russian equivalent of the Space Shuttle. The aircraft features a reproduction of Buran’s flight deck, in addition to a camera bay formerly used to train cosmonauts in observation and photographic techniques and later used for the Open Skies Treaty.
Rare sighting – Tu-154M-LK-1 Treaty on Open Skies observation aircraft
byu/BadWolfRU inaviation
The Tu-214ON is one of the aircraft formerly used by Russia for observation flights as part of the Open Skies Treaty. Among its specialized equipment are an A-84ON panoramic camera, an AK-111 topographic camera and two perspective AK-112 digital aerial cameras to capture high-resolution aerial photography, as well as two video cameras, a Raduga infrared thermographic camera and Ronsard Side looking airborne radar.
The #Tupolev Tu-214ON #aircraft – observation version of Tu-204 equipped for Treaty on Open Skies missions pic.twitter.com/GinOKtFJlN
— UAC Russia (@UAC_Russia_eng) August 18, 2016
The Tu-214PU-SBUS airborne command post equipped with the SBUS-214 (Spetsyalnyi Bortovoy Uzel Svyazi) communication suite and is meant to provide additional communication capabilities compared to the standard Tu-214PU. The aircraft is assigned to the Rossiya Special Flight Detachment and employed by the Ministry of Defense.
On this day in 2017 Tu-214PU-SBUS made it’s first flight. Such aircraft support key decision makers in their ability to C2, particularly the military in general and nuclear forces specifically, acting as redundant and survivable comms relays.
(https://t.co/slHN9GlC7B) pic.twitter.com/VWLL1bx4T5
— krakek (@krakek1) October 14, 2024
Putin’s bunkers
The Russian President Putin is known to use a number of bunkers across the country. Three of these are understood to be near the destination airports of these flights, with two on the Ural Mountains and one on the Altai Mountains.
The first two are reported to be at Kosvinsky Kamen in the Northern Ural Mountains and under Mount Yamantau in the Southern Ural Mountains. The two sites, whose construction began in the 1970s, are deeply buried underground.
Kosvinsky Kamen is the best-known Russian bunker and believed to be under around 1,000 feet of solid granite. The site is connected to a nuclear command and control system first developed under the Soviet Union, called Perimeter, reportedly activated in 1984 and last reported operational in 2011.
The bunker under Mount Yamantau is reportedly buried under 3,000 feet of rock, with a claimed extension of around 400 square miles. The facility is believed to be used to preserve the continuity of government during a major crisis, although there were reports it might be abandoned.
The third bunker, the farthest from Moscow, is reportedly below the palace used by Putin in the Ongudaysky district on the Altai Mountains, near the borders with Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. Earlier this year, news broke about the palace being partly destroyed by a fire.
The three airports where the majority of the aircraft arrived are reportedly used to serve these facilities due to their proximity. Specifically, Perm might serve the Northern Urals’ bunker, Koltsovo the Mount Yamantau’s bunker and Tolmachevo the Altai’s bunker.
The permission to fire into Russia
The mass departure of the aircraft from Moscow happened in the immediate aftermath of the permission by the United States and United Kingdom to employ on Russian soil the long-range weapons they supplied. Until that permission, Ukraine was authorized to employ the ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles only within Ukrainian territory.
The decision to allow the use of the Army Tactical Missile Systems inside Russia had been under consideration for months, mentions CNN, but only arrived now that the war surpassed 1,000 days. Among the reasons for the wait were the concerns about a further escalation and the limited stockpiles of the weapons.
A day later, the UK allowed the same use for the Storm Shadow missile, while also deciding to provide another batch of weapons. The Storm Shadow is considered an ideal weapon for penetrating hardened bunkers and ammunition stores.
The two weapons have comparable maximum ranges, the former at 300 km and the latter at 250 km. Both have been immediately put to use to strike target in the Kursk region, the Russian border region which Ukraine invaded at the start of its counteroffensive this summer.
Further flights
We monitored the recorded movements of the aircraft listed in the opening of this article during the week following the mass departure. Half of them were not spotted again after reaching their destination, while the others returned to Moscow and then performed other flights to different locations.
As mentioned earlier, the Il-62M RA-86561, after returning from Tolmachevo on Nov. 22, has been used by government officials for visits to multiple west Africa countries from Nov. 23 to Dec. 2. The Tu-214PU-SBUS RA-64529 returned to Moscow on Nov. 25 and then departed two days later for a visit to North Korea, landing in Pyongyang on Nov. 29.
SBUS comms unit appears to be headed to Vladivostok.
RFF7487 is Tu-214PU-SBUS RA-64529 #14FC11
— Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555.bsky.social) 28 novembre 2024 alle ore 21:37
Thanks again to EvergreenIntel for the help provided in the preparation of this article.
