In first, USAF RC-135 plane flies over Ukraine - media

The U.S. Air Force's RC-135 Rivet Joint strategic reconnaissance aircraft flew over Ukraine for the first time ever.

That’s according to RFE/RL, referring to Interfax.

The electronic reconnaissance plane, which took off from Mildenhall Air Base in Great Britain, entered the Ukrainian airspace in Volyn region on the morning of December 11 and headed east, along the border with Belarus. For more than four hours, the American reconnaissance plane flew over Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa regions.

The aircraft remained in the Ukrainian airspace for more than six hours. These aircraft have not flown in the skies over Ukraine, while other models were used, such as the RQ-4 Global Hawk strategic drones, which conducted air reconnaissance along the line of contact in the zone of ​​the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas.

Read also: Ukrainian army planning to increase number of Bayraktar drones

Until recently, RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft were used mainly for electronic reconnaissance near Russia's borders in the Black Sea, Baltic and Northern regions of Russia.

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