First, according to The Drive, six Russian navy amphibious landing ships have left their Baltic Sea port and are steaming into the Mediterranean Sea, ostensibly to take part in “naval exercises” suspiciously near Ukraine.
“However, with tensions surrounding Russia and Ukraine remaining high, there has been concern that the amphibious flotilla’s ultimate destination may be the Black Sea. From there they would be well-positioned to support a potential new Russian intervention in Ukraine,” the outlet reported.
The outlet went on to identify three of the vessels:
The three vessels from the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet, the Project 775 Ropucha class amphibious warfare ships Olenegorskiy Gornyak and Georgiy Pobedonosets and the Project 11711 Ivan Gren class landing ship Pyotr Morgunov, were spotted entering the Mediterranean … via the Strait of Gibraltar.
The Russian ships were shadowed by a patrol vessel belonging to the Spanish Navy, as well as a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft, one of the sea service’s most modern planes for surveillance and anti-submarine warfare.
Two days earlier, a trio of Ropucha class vessels from the Baltic Fleet, which preceded the flotilla from the Northern Fleet as it passed through the English Channel, entered the Med Sea along the same route, The Drive reported.
The Russian military had previously announced that these amphibious warfare vessels would be participating in exercises involving several other warships including some from Russia’s Pacific Fleet. But as in the past, Moscow often masks offensive military actions with pre-announced ‘maneuvers’ or ‘exercises,’ as was the case prior to the Georgian invasion in August 2008.
Another Russian warship, the Vishnya class intelligence-gathering ship Vasiliy Tatishchev, has also entered the Mediterranean Sea, ostensibly to also take part in the ‘exercises.’
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