American reconnaissance activities against Russia are growing increasingly brazen. On Dec. 27, two US reconnaissance aircraft appeared over Eastern Ukraine: an RC-135V signals intelligence aircraft followed by an E-8C battle management aircraft. The RC-135V spent several hours flying a track along the line of contact between the Ukrainian ground forces and the militias of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk republics, and another track in southern Ukraine, north of Crimea. According to the Flightradar24.com flight tracking website, the E-8C arrived into eastern Ukraine at about the time that the RC-135V had turned south to return to its base in Crete. These were the second and third known U.S. reconnaissance flights over Ukrainian territory, the first being by a single RC-135 on Dec. 16.