Russian Navy mission in the Eastern Mediterranean

Thanks to the invaluable work of the Twitter account TJ (@te3ej), which reports weather Morse messages from Russian military ships (in which military units transmit various information, including their position), we were able to reconstruct the mission of the Russian navy tanker Yelnya. Between last week and the current one, it carried out a mission in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The ship left the port of Tartus on October 13 and returned there on the 21st, after reaching nearly the Ionian Sea. Since almost all of the Russian Navy units were not in the port of Tartus during those dates, it is reasonable to think that the tanker’s journey was not a solitary one.

Supporting this theory, we have a photo showing it alongside the frigate Grigorovitch, leading us to believe that the two units carried out the mission together.

Replenishment at sea🌊for the 🇷🇺Grigorovitch by the 🇷🇺Yelnya tanker.
She still provides escort for the 🇷🇺Syrian Express.
Do you know what the Syrian Express is carrying? Is it still weapons? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/ehPQACnrk4

— Russian Forces Spotter (@TiaFarris10) October 22, 2024

It is quite rare, if not unique, to be able to trace a mission in almost its entirety. This allows us to understand the current approach of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean, where today its units venture away from the Syrian base but do not go beyond the Eastern Mediterranean, unlike in the summer of 2022.