Iranian drones could have reached russia by sea

The russian company “Oboronlogistika” boasted that its ship had delivered high-tech oversized equipment from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Novorossiysk. USM speculates that the cargo consisted of Iranian drones.

This was reported by “Oboronlogistika” on September 12. As the press service of the company writes, high-tech overall equipment (including modules weighing up to 227 tons) manufactured in Iran was imported. The equipment is allegedly “intended for the construction of facilities in russian energy industry.”

“Despite the specific conditions of sanctions pressure, “Oboronlogistska” aims to implement a promising logistics scheme with a friendly country. Iran has rich experience of development against the background of tough Western sanctions and has a high transit potential, which makes the port of Bandar Abbas a major hub in the Persian Gulf,” the russian company reported.

As of September 16, the company “Oboronlogistika” and some Russian mass media deleted the press release. However, the news can still be found on certain russian resources and through Google WebCache.

There are a number of strange events and “coincidences”. “Oboronlogistika” LLC owns three ro-ro vessels – Sparta, Sparta II and Sparta IV.

Previously, Sparta II was involved in a scandal: Ukraine revealed that the ship was transporting S-300PMU-2 missile systems from Syria to russia through the Bosphorus. We will remind, Turkey, in accordance with the Art. 19 of the Montreux Convention, prohibited the passage of warships of any foreign countries through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. And on August 29, the Turkish Embassy received a verbal note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine regarding the raised issue. Deputy Minister Mykola Tochytsky drew the attention of the Turkish ambassador to the fact that the ship Sparta II falls under the definition of a warship for the purposes of this Convention.

But let’s return to the first and fourth Sparta. The message of the press service of “Oboronlogistika” did not specify which vessel transported the “oversized cargo” from Iran to Novorossiysk, and to illustrate this, the photo of Sparta was added to the text in the release. It appeared both on the website of “Oboronlogistika” and on all resources where the news about the oversized delivery was published.

According to vessel traffic monitoring services, the Sparta did enter the port of Bandar Abbas, after which it went to the port of Novorossiysk.

At the same time that the “Oboronlogistika” ship is in Iran, the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain is warning Ukraine that russia is probably buying weapons in Iran. This version was also confirmed by the fact that later the rashists began to use Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine.

So, already in September – two weeks after the ship’s visit to Iran – near Kupyansk, Kharkiv Region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed the Iranian Shahed-136 attack drone for the first time. On September 16, the second confirmed case of the destruction of an Iranian drone on the territory of Ukraine was reported. And this is a month after a ship from Iran arrived in Novorossiysk.

USM would like to thank Kateryna Jaresko, journalist of the SeaKrime project at the Mirotvorec, for her assistance in preparing this publication.