War in Ukraine. Russian ships stationed in the Mediterranean Sea return to port after 325 days.

It’s a long, very long journey that cruiser sailors complete Varyagfighter jet Admiral’s Tribute and oil tanks Boris Butoma. The three ships belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet that struck the Red Star arrived in their home port of Vladivostok on Friday, November 18, crossing the large suspension bridge on Russky Island. The last leg of a 325-day journey that took them from their beloved territory to the eastern Mediterranean, where they spent more than ten months, counting the 30,000-kilometer round trip through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, China. Seas and Seas of Japan.

under the command of VaryagFlagship Pacific Fleet and sister ship from Moscow A small flotilla sunk by Ukrainians in the Black Sea last April played a discreet but essential role in ensuring a permanent Russian naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Ukraine war. Of course, the matter is not new. The Russian Navy has been stationing ships at Medor for several years now, mostly a few low-tonnage ships, as well as two submarines from the Black Sea Fleet, which are closest to the area. This Mediterranean squadron, a revival of the Soviet 5th Squadron that faced the US 6th Fleet during the Cold War, is integral to the Russian presence in Syria, where Moscow has a naval base in Tartus, Russia’s only one abroad.

Preventive posture

With tensions on the Ukrainian border escalating in early 2022 and escalating with the Feb. 24 invasion of the country, Moscow has greatly increased its presence in the Mediterranean. Back in January, the detachments of the two large fleets of the Northern and Pacific fleets, which were centered around cruisers, respectively. Marshal Ustinov and: Varyag accompanied by them. The goal, of course, was to monitor the activities of the NATO marines in Medor, but more fundamentally, to provide a posture of restraint. Displacing more than 12,000 tons, these massive cruisers, equipped with P-1000 Vulkan supersonic anti-ship missiles, weapons known as “carrier killers,” were up to the task. A more reliable deterrent is the fact that these missiles, which make these ships recognizable by their inclined launchers located on both sides of the bridge, have a so-called “dual” use, the conventional warheads of which can be replaced by nuclear warheads. . There is no indication that this was the case, but suspicion has deterrent value.

Thus, on paper, Russia had succeeded in regrouping the small arms of the eastern Mediterranean, which indicated the increase in the power of the Russian armies. But the reality is completely different. except for two frigates, the ships stationed by Moscow in “Medor” stand out first of all for their canonical age. It Varyag, Admiral’s Tribute and: Boris Butoma Returned to Vladivostok this Friday were commissioned in 1989, 1985 and 1978…that’s 33 to 44 years at sea. In the vast majority of the world’s navies, such buildings have already been retired, or will be. As a result, most of the sensors and weapons on large Russian ships have not been upgraded, no longer complying with modern standards.

Another difficulty is caused by the reduction of Russian naval vessels deployed in January. The Russian Navy has 18 frigates, destroyers and cruisers currently in operation and distributed among four fleets in the North, Pacific, Baltic and Black Seas, which are too far apart from each other. But there is no indication that all of these ships, only five in less than 10 years, could actually carry out a mission of several months thousands of kilometers from their home port.

Therefore, the ships deployed in January 2022 had to play extra time in extremely difficult conditions. You have to imagine sailors spending over ten months at sea in comfort, which is all the more rudimentary as the buildings are old, with the added bonus of tension created by the specific geopolitical context of the war in Ukraine. And above all, extremely limited opportunities for support, repair and supply. Russia has Tartus facilities in Syria, but this simple “materials and technical base”, practically dating back to Soviet times, has not yet received sufficient investment to meet the needs of large ships based in the open sea for long periods. For example, it is impossible for Russian cruisers or destroyers to anchor along the small craft lanes.

Russia is therefore unlikely to maintain its naval presence in the Mediterranean, which has been strengthened since last February. Like the Pacific ships, some of the ships of the Northern Fleet also left the area. On September 16, it was the cruiser Marshal Ustinovthe fighter Vice Admiral Kulakov and the oil pipeline Exercise who returned to their home port of Severomorsk in the Barents Sea.

As of November 12, only the frigate remained among the large ships Admiral Cassatonov – Flagship of the Russian Navy belonging to the Northern Fleet and a frigate Admiral Grigorovich, which belongs to the Black Sea Fleet, according to a calculation kept by Frederic Van Lokeren, a naval analyst and former Belgian officer. To compensate for this attrition, the Russians chose to deploy two classes of corvettes Steregushchi The Baltic Sea fleet, but such ships, although modern, do not have the endurance of cruisers or destroyers.

NATO maintains its presence in “Medor”.

And the situation should not improve. With the war in Ukraine and in the event of an armed conflict, according to the Montreux Treaty, Turkey has decided to close the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, which connect the Black and Mediterranean seas, to all warships. The fleet based in the former, already under severe pressure from the war, would no longer be able to deploy ships to support the Mediterranean “squadron”, while this solution was geographically the most logical. Currently, Black Sea ships in the Mediterranean are allowed to return only to the Sevastopol base. They play extra time again in “Medor”, but they cannot do it forever. at some point they will have to return to port. With the Turks closing the straits, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the Russians to supply their base at Tartus in Syria, but more important than ever. With warships banned, Moscow uses civilian tankers, which are protected by a frigate as they enter the Mediterranean.

On the contrary, NATO countries have a strong presence in the eastern Mediterranean, of course with the US Sixth Fleet and its forty ships and a very dense network of naval bases, which is very useful for logistics. There is also the naval forces, which constantly deploy a frigate in “Medor”. The aircraft carrier at the end of its summer maintenance stop Charles de Gaulle sailed from Toulon on November 15 as part of the Antares mission. Although the Ministry of the Armed Forces has remained tight-lipped about the route, we do know that the carrier battle group will soon move to the eastern Mediterranean to reinforce “NATO’s defensive and deterrence positions on the eastern flank of Europe”, which it already did in early 2022 – until depending on the evolution of the international context, perhaps until pushing into the Indian Ocean.