The US helped Ukraine forces in their attack against Russia's Moskva warship, according to a fresh revelation. A US surveillance aircraft provided Kyiv forces the accurate location of Russia's now-sunken warship.
US marine surveillance P-8 Poseidon aircraft was tracking Moskva in the hours before the ship was attacked. The US aircraft had shared the location of the Russian vessel to the Ukrainian military, according to The Times.
Washington used its new marine surveillance aircraft to provide accurate targeting data to Ukrainian forces to sink the Russian Black Sea flag ship Moskva.
Kyiv struck the warship with its two Neptune missiles on April 13. The loss of Moskva is seen as humiliating to the Russian Navy and President Vladimir Putin's leadership. Therefore, Moscow scaled up attacks against Kyiv to avenge the sinking of Moskva.
P-8 Poseidon, made by Boeing, is based upon 737-800 jet that are widely used by airlines such as Ryanair.
P-8 Flew From Italy
Poseidon is fitted with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment to track surface vessels and submarines at ranges of more than 100 miles.
The aircraft had flown from Italy took up station on the Romanian Black Sea coast to locate the position of Moskva.
A number of NATO planes have been involved in the surveillance since the start of the Ukraine war. The planes monitor Russian movements from the Polish coast, along the Ukrainian border and down to the Black Sea.
P-8 Aircraft Turned Off Its Trackers
Hours before the attack on Moskva, the P-8 aircraft left US Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily on April 13. The aircraft had also turned off its trackers before reaching the Black Sea coastline to prevent it from being followed online.
The plane was missing from the flight tracking website Flight Radar 24 for almost three hours.
There are also possibilities that some more US aircraft could have been over the Black Sea Coast on the day of the attack.
So far the US Navy has officially refused to confirm if they helped Kyiv to get the accurate location of Moskva.
"In keeping with our support to NATO's eastern flank, we have been conducting some limited air patrols off the coast of Romania. But we will not speak to the details of operational matters," a defense source told the Daily Mail.
