Russia Ships S-300 Missiles from Syria to Russian Port Near Crimea: Israeli Intelligence

Russia has transferred a battery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to Russia's Novorossiysk port near Crimea, Israeli satellite imaging company has claimed.

On August 28, ImageSat International (ISI) published images showing the presence of the S-300 battery at Masyaf, Syria in April; and the empty site left behind on August 25 after the hardware was shipped to the port of Tartus.

Another set of images shared by ISI showed the duration between August 12-27 when the battery components were on a dock at Tartus. The components were loaded up to the Russian vessel Sparta II by August 30, as per conclusions of ISI. The ship left Tartus for Novorossiysk, Russia. Novorossiysk is approximately 170km from Crimea's borders.

Currently, data from the Refinitiv Eikon shows the Sparta II to be present at Novorossiysk after having travelled through Turkey’s Dardanelles Strait. Though Turkey is empowered to regulate foreign warships close to the straits under the Montreux Convention during wartime and when threatened, it cannot halt any ships from returning to their registered base.

The radar components of the S-300 battery have been moved to Khmeimim Air Base on the Syrian coast as per pictures released by ISI. The base is located north of Tartus.

The company analysts suggest that these components will be airlifted from Khmeimim to Russia using an Ilyushin-76, owing to their size and weight making them unsuitable for sea shipment.

The Russian defense ministry is tight lipped on the situation.

Defensemirror.com Bureau