After Evacuating Tartus, Russian Flotilla Leaves Mediterranean
A Russian military convoy carrying equipment from the naval base at Tartus has exited the Strait of Gibraltar, answering the question of whether Moscow would be repatriating the military gear it had deployed to Syria over the past decade.
In early December, U.S.-designated terror group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, driving Assad's Russian military backers to retreat to Tartus, home of the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean. HTS did not attack Russian forces, even though Russia had bombarded HTS and its allies for most of Syria's 13-year civil war, but the Islamist group did cancel Russia's 49-year operating lease on the commercial portion of the seaport.
As HTS advanced, Russian Navy's Mediterranean Flotilla left Tartus en masse and took up station off the coast. In January, after weeks of negotiation, the military cargo vessels Sparta and Sparta II entered the port and backloaded large quantities of military equipment and containerized cargo that had been staged on the pier. As Moscow and HTS continued high-level talks on the future of Russia's presence in Syria, the ships departed for an unknown destination - prompting speculation about possible new basing arrangements for the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean.
Whether Russia secures an alternative base site from another friendly government remains to be seen, but this convoy - and its naval escorts, the remaining warships of Russia's Mediterranean Flotilla - appears to be headed home. Sparta and Sparta II exited the Strait of Gibraltar over the weekend, heading north towards Russia's ports in the Baltic. Given Russia's need for equipment on the battlefield, their cargoes are likely destined for the front line in Ukraine.
Tanker Suffers Engine Room Explosion at Russian Port of Ust-Luga
A tanker full of fuel oil sustained an explosion and may have partially sunk at the pier at the key Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga, according to Russian sources.
Security services-linked channel Baza reports that the tanker Koala was preparing to depart Ust-Luga in the early hours of Sunday morning when she suffered an engine room explosion. Three separate blasts were reported as the vessel was preparing to depart, and the 24 crewmembers abandoned ship onto the pier.
The engine room flooded, and the tanker settled slowly by the stern until it made contact with the bottom, Baza reported The majority of the ship remains afloat, and at present no pollution has been reported. None of the crewmembers were injured.
Official reports have presented conflicting information. Russia's Marine and River Transport Agency reports that the tanker is not in danger of sinking and that its cargo tanks are undamaged. According to the regional governor of Leningrad, the explosions were a "man-made incident" during engine startup, and the tanker remains securely moored at the pier. The cause of the casualty is under investigation.
Koala is a Turkish-owned, Cypriot-managed Suezmax of 160,000 dwt capacity. She is 22 years old, past the typical retirement age for a crude oil tanker, and has changed her flag state four times in the past year. Her port state control inspection record shows infrequent checks, but no recent deficiencies.
The blast was the second major casualty of the weekend in Russia. On Saturday, the Chinese bulker An Yang 2 ran aground on a rocky shoreline off Sakhalin in the Russian Far East.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said Sunday that Finland is monitoring the situation and has put its oil spill response capabilities on alert as a precautionary measure.
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