Russia Resupplies Syria Bases for First Time Under New Moscow-Damascus Deal
A four-vessel Russian convoy has delivered supplies to Syria’s Tartous port and Hmeimim airbase for the first time since Moscow and Damascus reached a new agreement on Russia’s military presence in Syria.
The convoy arrived at Tartous on September 7 and included the cargo ship Sparta, the replenishment oiler Akademik Pashin, the tanker General Skobelev and the destroyer Admiral Levchenko. Satellite imagery confirmed several of the vessels at the port.
A Syrian military source and a Russian-Syrian businessman said the Sparta unloaded supplies, including ammunition intended for Hmeimim and Tartous. The contents could not be independently confirmed.
The ships stopped transmitting tracking signals shortly after entering the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar, before continuing toward Syria.
The August agreement followed 18 months of negotiations after the December 2024 overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. Under the deal, civilian facilities used by Russia are to come under Syrian control, while the Hmeimim and Tartous military sites are to become joint training and capacity-building centres, with Russian forces remaining there.
Tartous is particularly important to Moscow because it serves as Russia’s only naval repair and replenishment facility in the Mediterranean.
