A passenger plane has written “relax” with its flight path near Ukraine’s border.
Amid heightened tensions with Russia, an Air Moldova plane drew an 80-mile wide version of the word using its flight path on Thursday afternoon, data courtesy of Flightradar24.com showed.
The plane, a 23-year-old Airbus A321 using “Relax” as its call sign, departed from Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, for a one-hour 40-minute flight before landing back at the same airport.
It flew at an altitude of 10,000 feet, at times just 25 miles from the country’s border with Ukraine.
Just relax. https://t.co/zhtzH7lQ9O pic.twitter.com/56AK2U4SD3
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 17, 2022
Over 30,000 users were tracking the flight at one point, according to Flightradar24.com.
The PA news agency has contacted Air Moldova for comment but it had not responded at the time of publication.
It comes as Western sources said dozens of Russian battalion tactical groups have moved within about 30 miles of the Ukrainian border, amid growing fears of an invasion within days.
They rejected claims from Moscow that troops were being withdrawn from areas close to Ukraine, insisting the military build-up was instead continuing.
More Russian armed vehicles and helicopters have been moved in recent days towards Ukraine, and a field hospital near the border set up, they said.
Reports also suggested Russian forces are leaving deployment sites to staging areas closer to the border ready for an attack if it is ordered by Vladimir Putin.
