The plane carrying US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff has crossed the Russian border, according to Flightradar24.
According to the portal, the Bombardier Global 7500 plane, which took off from Florida, crossed the border with Russia at around 6:11 a.m. Bulgarian time.
US Permanent Representative to NATO Matthew Whitaker announced in an interview with WHO 13 News on August 1 that the American diplomat would be in Moscow over the weekend after a visit to Israel, but the visit never took place.
US President Donald Trump announced the special envoy's trip to Russia on the same day. On Monday, the White House chief of staff said that Witkoff could visit Russia on Wednesday or Thursday.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce confirmed Witkoff's visit to Russia but declined to comment on the details. She added that the State Department did not know what the White House chief of staff would do after the trip. According to the diplomat, the president is unhappy with Moscow and his counterpart Vladimir Putin, but continues to believe in a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine. This will be the fifth visit by Trump's special envoy to Russia since the beginning of the year. The last two times he visited the Russian capital on April 11 and 25 and held meetings with Vladimir Putin.