Russia sent a destroyer-class combat ship, which is anticipated to reach the Turkish Straits by Wednesday morning, to Syria from its Black Sea fleet on Tuesday, a news report pronounces.
Destroyer Smetlivy, which policed the waters off the coast of Syria in April and May, was caught departing the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Tuesday morning, in accordance with the Reuters news agency. “The watercraft is anticipated to get to the Turkish Straits tomorrow morning,” the agency cited a source speaking on the circumstance of anonymity as having said. The ship is on its way to Syria, the source added up.
The Russian Navy refused to affirm its destination. “The vessel has gone to sea; I can’t tell you anything else,” Vyacheslav Trukhachyov, a spokesman for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, told Reuters.
In addition, Turkish outlets reported on Tuesday that other Russian combat ship arrived at the Aegean Sea after passing across the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits on Monday morning. The amphibious ships Nikolay Filchenkov and Tsezar Kunikov, companied by rescue tug SB-15, came in the Dardanelles on Tuesday morning at around 7 a.m., CNN Türk television has reported. Russian authorities had given prior notification to Turkey of the ships’ passage through the Turkish Straits, according to the report.
The vessels accomplished their passage through the straits in 2 hours and headed out to the Aegean Sea.
Article fourteen of the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits, which returned the straits to the control of the Turkish military in 1936, lets warships pass across the zone so long as notice is given to Turkey 8 to 15 days beforehand and acquits the condition that not more than 9 vessels up to a certain tonnage may pass at a time.
Russia has also sent a naval flotilla of 6 warships to its naval base at the Syrian port of Tartus, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday. The Admiral Chabanenko and 3 landing craft left their home port of Severomorsk in the Arctic Circle on their way to the Mediterranean, where they’ll be brought together by the Russian patrol ship Yaroslav Mudry in addition to an assistance vessel, the agency stated.
