Monitoring the Russian flottilla

The Russian flotilla, composed of several military and civilian vessels, which departed from Syria last week, is now in the Sardinian Channel, sailing westward between the Italian island and Tunisia.

When it was still in the Eastern Mediterranean (when we obtained photos and thus had direct confirmation), the Russian flotilla consisted of:

• Admiral Grigorovich – frigate
• Admiral Golovko – frigate
• Ivan Gren – landing ship
• Alexander Otrakovsky – landing ship
• Sparta – RoRo cargo
• Sparta II – RoRo cargo
• General Skobelev – tanker
• Vyazma – tanker

We do not know if all the vessels are still sailing together, but Sparta and Sparta II certainly are, as they have transmitted their AIS signals in close temporal and physical proximity.

🚨🚨🚨Exclusive photos📸: a group of 🇷🇺Russian military ships and commercial vessels in the Mediterranean 🌊between Crete and Malta🏝️. They’re certainly looking for support to save 🇷🇺RO-RO SPARTA, which looks very frail to me! After the lost of the cargo ship 🇷🇺URSA MAJOR in… pic.twitter.com/tzyxkTIaeW

— Russian Forces Spotter (@TiaFarris10) February 4, 2025

This morning, we tracked two Italian aircraft operating in that section of the sea:

• An Italian Air Force ATR P-72A (reg. MM62280), which took off from Sigonella and operated in the area where the Russian ships were located (although we do not have a complete signal track for that part of the mission).
• An Italian Guardia di Finanza ATR P-72B (reg. MM62321), which took off from Pratica di Mare AB and was also engaged in surveillance activities in the area.

The latter appears to have flown over the Russian flotilla before shifting focus to another target, possibly a migrant boat, slightly further north.