Russian landing ship Saratov going to Syrian port Tartus - source (Part 2)

MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax-AVN) - The Saratov, a large landing ship from the Russian Black Sea Fleet, has passed through the straits and is headed to the eastern Mediterranean, toward the Russian Naval logistics base in the Syrian port of Tartus, a military diplomat told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.

"The Saratov took aboard several pieces of military hardware and special-purpose units on Monday. The ship successfully passed through the straits of Bosphorus and Dardanelles on Wednesday and reached the Aegean Sea on Wednesday," he said.

In his words, on Friday the ship will rendezvous with a group of warships from the Black Sea Fleet performing combat missions in the Mediterranean Sea. "Next week the Saratov will visit the Syrian port of Tartus, the location of a Russian Naval logistics base," the source said.

It was reported earlier that the Black Sea Fleet large landing ship Novocherkassk took aboard a marine unit and several pieces of military hardware in Novorossiysk on December 29. It sailed to the Mediterranean Sea on January 1 to meet with the Black Sea Fleet naval group comprising the missile-carrying cruiser Moskva, the patrol ship Smetlivy and the sea tanker Ivan Bubnov.

A naval unit from the Baltic Fleet - the patrol ship Yaroslav Mudry, the large landing ships Kaliningrad and Alexander Shabalin, the tanker Lena and a tugboat that left Kaliningrad on December 18 - is traversing the eastern sector of the Mediterranean Sea.

The North Fleet's anti-sub ship Severomorsk, the tugboat Altai and medium sea tanker Dubna are also operating in the Mediterranean.

According to a report from the Russian Defense Ministry's press service and information department, an inter-fleet unit of the Russian Navy will conduct exercises in the Black and Mediterranean Seas within days. The exercises will involve ships from the North, Baltic, Black Sea and Pacific Fleets.

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