According to the portal, the military cargo ship Sparta I, Sparta II, General Skobolev and the landing craft Ivan Gren and Alexandr Otrakovskij are waiting for permission to enter Tartus for the purpose of evacuating Russian soldiers and their equipment, including heavy weapons.
The commander of the Russian evacuation fleet, rear admiral Valeriy Varfolomejev, tried to negotiate the entry of the ships into the port with the relevant Syrian authorities at the weekend, but failed. According to the portal RBK-Ukraine, which refers to the Ukrainian military intelligence HUR, he also tried for the second time to meet with representatives of the ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) movement, but instead of being accepted, he received a harsh message that they did not want to talk to him.
Inside the port, however, there are already hundreds of military trucks loaded with dismantled radar systems and at least two S-400 anti-aircraft systems, and armored personnel carriers. The column is more than one kilometer long. Russian soldiers on the shore have already started burning supplies and equipment that are not subject to the evacuation order.
Behind the sinking of the Russian cargo ship was a “terrorist act”, writes RIA
Foreign
Unlike the personnel who can be evacuated from the nearby Hmímím military airport, which the Russians still control as well as the air base, the heavy military equipment must be transported by sea. Otherwise, the Russians will have to leave it in Syria.
Until the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in December 2024, Tartus was the only Russian naval base in Syria and the basis of Russian military logistics in the Middle East and Africa. The presence of the Russian Navy in Tartus dates back to the Soviet era, and in 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement with Assad that would have given the Kremlin the right to use the port there for free for 49 years.
As the new Syrian government led by HTS strengthens its control over Syrian ports, the Russian Navy no longer has a foothold there, noted the Maritime-Executive server. According to RBK-Ukraine, the head of HTS, Ahmad Šara, who is the de facto ruler of Syria, has already made it known that Damascus wants to continue good relations with Moscow, but intends to limit the Russian military presence in Syria.
The Russians at the bases in Syria have already packed. Most likely they will move to Libya
Near and Middle East
