A special flight chartered by the US government to repatriate American citizens from Russia departed Moscow this morning, according to the US embassy.
“It’s been a long night at the airport in Moscow as we’ve worked to get folks on this charter flight home to family and friends in the United States,” US Ambassador John Sullivan said in a statement posted on Twitter by embassy spokesperson Rebecca Ross.
“My sincere thanks to everyone who helped”, he said.
Separately, a flight on Aeroflot, Russia’s national carrier, landed late on Tuesday at New York’s JFK airport carrying Americans returning from Russia.
An earlier Aeroflot flight to New York had been cancelled at the last minute by Russian aviation authorities.
“We are working hard to confirm who was on the Aeroflot flight and reconcile that against the list of U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents who registered for our charter flight,” the US embassy in Moscow said in a statement.
Russia has officially confirmed 8,672 cases of coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
