The Russians are considering building an Ekranoplan again and they need to test whether the vessel will be visible enough from the ground to US citizens so picked the next closest sized vessel. They have failed their mission, with complaints from planted ground agents like “it’s too small” and are returning to the Motherland to make an even bigger Ekranoplan this time.

EDIT: This just in: the crew’s radio signals were intercepted by a member on the War Thunder forums, apparently they said “Just one more Ekranoplan, comrade. Trust me, comrade. This time will be different, comrade.” But in Russian, obviously.