CIA Director John Ratcliffe has made a surprise trip to Moscow, sources told CBS News, after a US jet landing sparked frenzied speculation earlier Tuesday.

The CIA declined to offer any comment about Ratcliffe’s visit, which appears to be his first to Russia as head of the spy agency. The Kremlin denied to comment.

But Ratcliffe’s visit is likely to invite comparisons to the CIA’s last publicly known direct-level visit. William Burns traveled to Moscow in November 2021 and met with Vladimir Putin to warn against a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

It comes at a particularly fraught moment on NATO’s eastern frontier with Russia increasingly encroaching on Polish territory.

A Russian missile entered Polish airspace and crashed in July, prompting Warsaw and NATO to activate air defenses and scramble aircraft.

NATO chief Mark Rutte called the episode ‘another reckless act by Russia’ and a dangerous consequence of its war against Ukraine. 

That follows similar breaches last year which have fueled fears in Warsaw that Moscow is testing NATO’s defense and willingness to respond to attacks.

‘We in Poland, and you in Ukraine, have decided: we will never again be Russian colonies,’ Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Tuesday. 

US-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have stalled after Donald Trump met with Vladimir Putin in Alaska last year.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Donald Trump in a make-shift Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago in January

Trump, left, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe speak as they depart following a cabinet meeting at Camp David, near Thurmont, Md., Friday, July 31

The C-17A Globemaster III touched down at Vnukovo International Airport on August 25 after taking off from Riga, Latvia, public flight-tracking data showed

Ratcliffe’s visit emerged after flight tracking data had revealed a US Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport plane touched down at Vnukovo International Airport outside Moscow. 

Flying under the call sign RCH4555, the jet left Riga, Latvia, at around 8.50am Moscow time (1.50am ET) and landed in the Russian capital approximately 74 minutes later.

Flightradar24 described the aircraft as an ‘unusual visitor’ to Moscow. The flight would have required authorization from Russian authorities to enter the country’s airspace and land at Vnukovo. 

Separately, footage circulating online appeared to show a US diplomatic convoy traveling through Moscow around the time of the landing.

A motorcade bearing American diplomatic number plates with a police escort was spotted speeding through Moscow shortly after footage of the plane surfaced online. 

The CIA keeps in contact with its Kremlin counterparts, and has been involved in recent prisoner exchanges, including US-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina, whose 2025 release was personally negotiated by Ratcliffe. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no information about the aircraft and added that no meetings with US administration officials were scheduled for this week.

The White House and Pentagon had not publicly disclosed the purpose of the flight or confirmed who or what was onboard.

The C-17A is a long-range military transport used to move troops, vehicles and heavy cargo and can carry up to 170,900 pounds

The aircraft, flying under the call sign RCH4555, left the Nato country at around 8:50am Moscow time (12.50am ET) and landed in the Russian capital roughly 74 minutes later

Neither Washington nor Moscow has explained the reason for the flight as of Tuesday morning, leaving it unclear who or what the giant military aircraft was carrying

Flight history showed the aircraft had arrived in Riga on August 23 from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, near Washington DC, where the US presidential aircraft fleet is based.

The C-17A is a long-range military transport used to move troops, vehicles and heavy cargo and can carry up to 170,900lb.

A flight enthusiast tracking the jet said on X: ‘In a highly unusual move, a US Air Force C-17 transport aircraft has just landed in Moscow from Riga, Latvia, flying across restricted airspace. I wonder what is going on…’

The Daily Mail has contacted the White House for comment.