The Standoff Continues Off Tartus

This morning, five Russian ships, including some traceable ones, are waiting to enter the port of Tartus.

Alongside the RoRo vessel Sparta, which has been awaiting authorization for over two weeks, the sister ship Sparta II and the tanker General Skobelev have also arrived. Like the SPARTA, these two ships have entered Syrian territorial waters but continue to move back and forth at very low speed along the coast as they await permission to dock at the Syrian port.

In addition to these “civilian” vessels (the term “civilian” is in quotation marks for a reason, as they are Russian state-owned companies operating on behalf of the Ministry of Defense), two Russian Navy landing ships, the Ivan Gren and Aleksandr Otrakovskiy, are also offshore near Tartus. Although not traceable via standard means, they have been spotted through satellite imagery.

It is unclear when this situation will be resolved; it could take hours or days.

This deployment of Russian ships to Syria is part of an operation to evacuate Russian military assets following the end of Assad’s regime.