On Monday, May 18, 2026, a U.S. Air Force Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II electronic reconnaissance aircraft (also known as "Artemis II") completed a multi-hour flight over the Black Sea in close proximity to the Crimean Peninsula and the coast of the Krasnodar Krai. This was confirmed by data from military aviation monitoring resources.

The aircraft, call sign ARTEMIS II, took off from the 57th Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base in Constanta, Romania, at around 9:00 AM Moscow time. The aircraft is flying a closed route: east of the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria, north of the Turkish coast, south of Crimea, southwest of Sochi, and south of Novorossiysk.

The Artemis II (Bombardier Challenger 650) aircraft is equipped with a powerful electronic reconnaissance suite. Its primary mission is to gather intelligence: recording the response times of air defense systems, intercepting electronic emissions, and recording the frequencies of early warning stations.

Experts believe that the activity of American reconnaissance aircraft is directly linked to Ukrainian forces' preparations for new attacks on Crimea and the Krasnodar Krai. Such flights allow for the accumulation of data on the location and operation of Russian air defense systems, which can subsequently be used to plan strikes.