Russian Forces Concentrate Equipment at Tartus Naval Base
18 December, 2024 The base's pier in Tartus. Source: Evan Hill The Russians have amassed a large amount of equipment at the naval base in Tartus, Syria.
The corresponding Maxar satellite images were shared by military observer Evan Hill in his X. The photos show a large number of trucks and other vehicles on the base's pier, with no equipment at the cargo terminals. Obviously, the equipment is waiting for the amphibious assault and cargo ships of the Russian Navy, which are now heading to Tartus.
General view of the port in Tartus.
Source: Evan Hill
Naval weapons researcher H I Sutton has published infographics that show a whole group of such ships heading towards Syria. Thus, a Project 775 amphibious assault ship, Alexander Shabalin, and the Syrian Express container ships Sparta and Ursa Major are on their way to Tartus.
Infographic of the movements of Russian fleet ships. Source: H I Sutton
A group of ships from the Northern Fleet, consisting of one amphibious assault ship and one cargo ship, was also seen leaving under the cover of Udaloy, a Project 1155 destroyer.
Recently, Israeli troops targeted one of the deposed Assad regime's weapons depots in the Tartus area. The detonation was so strong that it caused a 3.0 earthquake. In addition, the images released by Preston Stewart show that the equipment is also concentrated near the Il-76 military transport aircraft on the territory of the Khmeimim airbase.
It should be reminded that Russian aircraft, including Su-24 frontline bombers, Su-34 fighter bombers, and Su-30/35 fighters, are still stationed at this airbase.
IL-76 at Khmeimim airbase.
Source: Preston Stewart
In general, the fate of Russian military bases in the Syrian Arab Republic remains unclear, and it is not known whether the new government will allow the bases in Latakia to remain.
The scale of the evacuation of the Russian contingent may indicate that it will either be completely withdrawn from Syria or remain in a very limited form.