Syrian standoff

The stalemate continues off the Syrian coast for Russian ships bound for Tartus, where they are supposed to load equipment to be returned to Russia (or elsewhere) following Moscow’s withdrawal from Syria.

It has now been six days since the cargo ship Sparta and the landing ships Ivan Gren and Aleksandr Otrakovskiy have been waiting to enter the port.

Additionally, other Russian ships (at least one carrying supplies) that were previously stationed at the Syrian port remain off the coast of Tartus. For them, the situation has been stagnant for almost a month.

🚨update🚨
🇷🇺Med Sea Flotilla🇷🇺
Landsat8-9 of Tartus (10 Jan 2025)

While Sparta still waits outside Syrian territorial waters, there appear to be 2x vessels at the 🇷🇺naval piers

Both look commercial although this is where the weapons runners have loaded/unloaded in the past pic.twitter.com/J9AasKDgiM

— MT Anderson (@MT_Anderson) January 10, 2025

It is not ruled out that, if nothing changes in the coming days, they too (as already done by two spy ships and a submarine previously based in Syria) may decide to head for other ports.