A well-known sanctioned ship was used to evacuate Russian troops from Tartus

The Russian Federation is involving new vessels in the evacuation of military equipment from the Syrian port of Tartus.

The Russian sanctioned transport vessel “Baltic Leader” is heading to the Syrian port of Tartus. This is reported by the Crimean Wind monitoring group.

On the evening of January 28, the Baltic Leader sharply reduced its speed to 0.8 knots, after which an unknown vessel approached it.

Meanwhile, the “Sparta II”, already loaded with Russian military equipment in Tartus, is probably heading to Libya. Yesterday, the vessel was spotted south of Cyprus, after which it turned off its AIS identification system.

Another vessel, “Sparta”, continues loading in Tartus. According to monitoring groups, the number of Russian military equipment at the berths has significantly decreased. S-300/S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems were previously spotted there.

Reference: “Baltic Leader” is a Russian ro-ro cargo ship built in 2000 at the German shipyard Ps Werften Wolgast. Its length is 127 meters, width is 20 meters, draft is 4.9 meters, and maximum speed is 10.5 knots. The ship is under the flag of the Russian Federation, has the call sign UBEW6, IMO identification number is 9220639, MMSI is 273297850.

Previously, the ship was operated under other names, including “Fleet Leader”, “Ocean Pride”, “Rio Kusan’, “BBC Kusan”, “BBC Germania”, “Rickmers Germania” and “Scan Germania”, changing flags of Germany, Liberia, Great Britain and the Isle of Man.

The ship was sanctioned for being used in the interests of the Russian army. In February 2022, it was detained by French customs officers in the English Channel. In May of the same year, the US imposed sanctions on the vessel’s operator, Transmorflot LLC, for transporting weapons to Russia. Despite the sanctions, the vessel continued to operate between Novorossiysk and Tartus in 2024, also sailing to ports in Turkey and Egypt.

As previously reported by USM, the new Syrian government has terminated a 49-year-old agreement with Russia on the port of Tartus. Now the Russians are hastily withdrawing military equipment from the former sole naval base in the Mediterranean.