British Navy tracks Russian arms convoy from Syria

The Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force of Great Britain escorted Russian ships transporting weapons from Syria to the Russian Federation.

The British Navy and the Royal Air Force tracked the movement of a Russian convoy of military and transport ships heading from Syria to Russia through the English Channel. This is reported by the Maritime Executive.

This is probably the final stage of the evacuation of Russians from the Syrian Tartus. It is believed that the ships are transporting weapons and military equipment that can later be used in the war against Ukraine.

Before that, on the night of March 15-16, the Russian destroyer Severomorsk, accompanied by the Belgian patrol ship Castor, crossed the North Sea. After that, entering the English Channel, it came under the observation of the British tanker Tidesurge.

In the Atlantic, the Severomorsk met a convoy returning from Syria. It included the landing ship Alexander Shabalin, the military cargo ship Sparta IV, which regularly plies between Syria and Russia as part of the “Syrian Express,” and the sanctioned ship Sianiye Severa.

The convoy left Tartus on March 2, loaded with military equipment from Russian bases in Syria, where it has been used for years to support the Bashar al-Assad regime.

As a reminder, Russia began evacuating its military assets from Syria in December last year after the fall of the Assad regime. During his rule, Moscow leased the port of Tartus, which housed Russia’s only naval base in the Mediterranean, for 49 years.

Now the Kremlin is trying to convince the new Syrian authorities to allow the continued use of this base. In exchange, Russia is offering economic support, including oil supplies. For example, recently the sanctioned Russian tanker Sabina set sail from Murmansk for the Syrian port of Banias with a million barrels of crude oil to compensate for reduced supplies from Iran. As USM reported, the day before, a Russian ship transporting military equipment from Syria ran aground.