The National Resistance Center, together with other units of the Ukrainian Defence Forces, gained access to internal information about Russian-sanctioned cargo ships. This includes information on routes, cargo, ports of call, and espionage activities carried out by the crews of allegedly civilian ships. This helped drive Russian bulk carriers out of the Black Sea, but now they are destabilising the Baltic Sea.
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and long negotiations with the new government in Damascus, on 27 January, Russian ships began evacuating weapons from the local port of Tartus. The Russians are taking away military equipment that has been used for years for the needs of their contingent, which has failed to protect Syria’s longtime dictator.
The ships involved in the arms transport operation are the Sparta and Sparta II, which belong to Oboronlogistika LLC, a company of the Russian Ministry of Defence that has been under sanctions since 2022 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This does not prevent the company from participating in cargo transportation for the needs of the Russian army abroad.
Thanks to cooperation between different parts of the Defence Forces and with the participation of the National Resistance Center, Ukraine managed to gain access to internal information about Oboronlogistika vessels. The surveillance took place starting with the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The objects of surveillance were, in particular, Sparta and Sparta II, as well as other ships of the company. For example, the Ursa Major, which sank in the Mediterranean Sea at the end of December 2024. The vessel was transporting equipment for Rosatom’s needs.
This was no secret to the Defence Forces. Just as it is no secret now that the route and location of the Sparta II, which switched off its AIS tracking device after leaving Syrian waters, is no secret. This is a traditional practice for all vessels of the Russian shadow fleet. However, the Defence Forces have access to Russia’s internal Mosaik system for tracking ships and their cargo. This is confirmed in the screen recording below.
Montreux Convention essence violation
The video uses examples of the movement of the Sparta IV, Sparta II and Ursa Major vessels for the period of 2023. In particular, it shows the passage of the Sparta IV from Novorossiysk to Syria through the Turkish Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits.
In this way, Russia has actually violated the essence of the Montreux Convention, which prohibits the passage of warships of the warring Black Sea states through the straits.
By using civilian vessels as carriers of military equipment, Russia acted in a typical way: to violate the treaty without formally going beyond its borders. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry drew attention to the problem in August 2022 by sending a note to Turkey.
However, this did not yield any results, as the Turkish side then actually removed itself from solving the problem.
It was possible to stop the movement of the Syrian Express through the Black Sea in the spring of 2024. At that time, specialized resources that track shipping news noted a change in the routes of the Sparta and Ursa Major ships. The ships stopped entering the Black Sea on their way from Syria and instead went across the Atlantic Ocean to the Baltic ports of Russia, a route that was several times longer.
The explanation for this behavior is quite simple: Russia decided not to risk its vessels in the Black Sea, given the attacks by Ukrainian naval drones that intensified at the time. The timely arrival of the unmanned boats at the right place was ensured precisely because of access to data on the movements and cargo of Russian Oboronlogistika vessels. Ukraine had access to documents on cargoes with wet seals
As you know, the change in course did not help the Oboronlogistika ship Ursa Major, which suffered an unfortunate shipwreck near Gibraltar at the end of 2024.
Tools of hybrid warfare in the Baltic Sea
In addition to the transportation of weapons, Russia uses its “civilian bulk carriers” to spy on the movements of NATO ships in the Baltic Sea, where a hybrid confrontation between Russia and the Baltic states is currently underway. The NRC experts also found evidence while studying the documents of Oboronlogistika. We decided to publish them in view of the “accidental” breaks of communication cables on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, which have become more frequent recently. In particular, the Spart crews were ordered to monitor NATO warships during the Aurora 23 exercise.
The report on the Latvian patrol ship from Captain Mikhail Yezhov looked like this:
This is only a small part of the information obtained. However, it is intended to demonstrate that Russia’s actions in Ukraine are only part of Russia’s overall strategy of aggression against the EU and NATO. The “civilian” Russian vessels expelled by force from the Black Sea, which for years helped support the war in Syria, immediately began to destabilize the situation in the Baltic Sea. And they will continue to do so until they receive a response by force.
