Sanctioned carrier is on the way from Arkhangelsk to Syria
Three days after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, a cargo ship previously used for Russian weapons deliveries set out from the north Russian port of Arkhangelsk towards Tartus, Syria.
The S.Kuznetsov left Arkhangelsk on October 18. Three days later, the 107-metre-long cargo ship had made it to the Norwegian Sea. According to ship traffic information, it will reach its destination on November 8.
The S.Kuznetsov is sanctioned by US authorities. According to the Americans, the ship has been involved in transportation of stolen grain from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian port of Berdiansk. It has also been involved in shipments of goods for the Russian armed forces.
According to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, the S.Kuznetsov has has "transported tanks and other military equipment for the Russian armed forces."
The S.Kuznetsov is owned and operated by the Northern Shipping Company. The company and its 27 ships are subject to restrictive US measures.
It is not clear what is on board the ship now as it sails towards the Mediterranean.
The shipment comes shortly after Vladimir Putin received Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa in the Kremlin.
According to the propagandists in Moscow, the two men discussed "the current situation and prospects for the development of Russian-Syrian relations in the political, trade, economic and humanitarian spheres."
Syria was for decades a Russian foothold in the Middle East, but major parts of Moscow's presence perished with the toppling of Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.
The forces that pushed al-Assad out of Damascus were led by Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Despite the obvious tensions between the men, Vladimir Putin this week told al-Sharaa that "relations between Syria and Russia have always been exclusively friendly."
"We in Russia have never had any relations with Syria that were linked to our political situation or special interests. Throughout all these decades, we have always been guided by one thing: the interests of the Syrian people," the Russian dictator said.
Russia's military engagement in Syria preceded the country's full-scale war against Ukraine. Thousands of Russian troops were sent to Syria for training and war experiences. They committed grave war crimes against the Syrian people, the same way as they later did against the Ukrainians.
Many thousand Syrian civilians were killed by the Russians. The Russian air force targeted schools and civilian infrastructure and carpet-bombed cities like Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The Russian forces also killed thousands of soldiers from the Syrian opposition and the Islamic State (IS), including many of the men that were under the command of Ahmed al-Sharaa.
