A merchant ship under US sanctions passed the Turkish Bosphorus Strait on the way from Syria to Russia at the end of last month. European intelligence officials who track Sparta II said it brought military vehicles to increase Presidential War Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
The ship’s trip to the Black Sea Port of Novorossiesysk underlined Kremlin’s efforts to utilize resources for the invasion that is now in the sixth month, because supply paths press under the largest military campaign pressure in Europe since World War II.
While Ukraine has received billions of weapons dollars from the US and Europe to help defend himself, Russia must depend on its own resources to support the frontline forces in the middle of a broad report. Tens of thousands of Russian troops have been killed or injured and thousands of armored vehicles were destroyed, according to US estimates.
An official who is familiar with this problem said that the US government believes Russia has used a merchant ship to move military cargo to the black sea, echoing European intelligence reports. The official asked not to be identified to discuss secret issues.
Sparta II almost certainly brought military vehicles from the Syrian Tartus Port used by Russia, according to intelligence officials and Satellite Image on July 17-25 which was seen by Bloomberg. They say the exact nature of the vehicle is not clear. The ship was seen in Syria with a detained vehicle, seen crossing the Bosphorus Strait and then identified in Novorossiysk with at least 11 vehicles that were likely to be demolished.
Maritime tracking data shows ships owned by companies approved by the US in May which are controlled by the Russian Ministry of Defense traveled on the date, apparently not respected by members of NATO Turkey.
Ankara requested the Montreux Convention to close the Strait into a warship immediately after the anniversary of February 24, although commercial shipments can pass. Russia uses a cargo ship from the company, Ooo Ooo Ooo, on the same route on another occasion this year, according to people. It has transported military cargo several times from Russia to Syria in the past.
A spokesman for the US State Department refers to the question of this issue to the Turkish government. A Turkish official who is familiar with this problem said that the merchant ship will only be examined if there are tip-offs or mistakes. A White House spokesman refused to comment whether the US had spoken with Turkish officials about the situation. Kremlin and Oboronlogistika did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
To be sure, Russia built a massive weaponry supply during the modernization program for a decade monitored by Putin, and Kremlin officials denied supply problems. However, US and European officials said the disappearance of a large number of tanks and operators of armored personnel forced Moscow to dip into older stock equipment, including T-62 tanks that had been decades.
Like Russia, Ukraine has not revealed the scale of its military losses despite facing logistics challenges to far greater enemies, especially in war. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in the July 22 interview with Wall Street Journal that the victims of the battlefield had fallen to around 30 per day from the highest 100-200 every day in May-June, the number that had not been verified independently.
Putin has had troops in Syria since ordered the 2015 operation to sustain his president Bashar al-Assad. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2017 said the military tested more than 160 sophisticated weaponry types there including fighter jets, missiles guided by laser, tanks, electronic war methods and air defense systems.
There are indications that Kremlin is also looking for additional resources elsewhere.
Tensions have widening between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagornornorno-Karabakh region in the last few weeks in the middle of a report rejected by Moscow that Russia has thinned the peacekeeper for 2,000 troops to be sent to Ukraine. The US in March said Russia had diverted several troops to Ukraine from the Georgian Breakaway region in South Ossetia, where he made thousands of soldiers since fighting in 2008.
Russia turned to Iran to try to buy armed drones, CIA Director William Burns told the US Security Forum last month, saying it showed “Lack of Russian Defense Industry today, and the difficulties they experienced after significant losses.”
North Korea can be a new source of artillery that is impossible because it has a system with a decent quality and last month recognizes the Republic of Donetsk and Luhanansk People controlled by Kremlin in East Ukraine as independent, according to one person with knowledge of Russian defense policy, not asking not as a person As an independent, according to one person with a Russian defense policy, asking for no. identified discuss sensitive problems.
Russian shipping from Syria is likely to be included in its overall logistics because Novorossiysk is used to supply bases in neighboring Crimea that Putin was annexed in 2014, and from there to occupy Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in South Ukraine, one of the European intelligence officials. This new Russian re -uses troops and equipment to the area because Ukraine threatens a counterattack in the Kherson region.
Russia moved a large number of troops to Crimea in preparation for placement in South Ukraine and at least eight battalion tactical groups consisting of 800 to 1,000 soldiers were moved from the East Donbas region, adding pressure on the logistics supply route, the person said.
Instead of a large-scale attack, Ukraine might try to lure Russian troops to the Kherson region where they will be more vulnerable to attack, Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic study at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said August 7 on Twitter. “In addition, the supply problem for Russia is far more complicated with the river where the bridge can be cut off and only a few heavy railroad lines,” he said.
Pentagon said that he had supplied $ 9.1 billion in defense assistance to Ukraine since February, including $ 1 billion which was announced Monday to increase the supply of long-distance artillery ammunition, anti-tank weapons and medical vehicles. The government in Kyiv has also received billions of more weapons from the British and other northern Atlantic agreement organizations.
Ukrainian troops who used the Himars provided by the long-term US Artillery recently targeted the Russian supply paths and the ammunition shop behind the front with increased effectiveness, as well as the main infrastructure.
“The delivery of western weapons allows Ukraine to attack the bridge, which complicates logistics and supply,” said Igor Korotchenko, Head of the World Weapons Trade Analysis Center based in Moscow. “Still, artillery and attack aircraft are the main weapons in our current attack and we also have no shortcomings.”
As many as 80,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured in the war, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the US for Colin Kahl’s policy said Monday with a regular Pentagon briefing. The US assessment also that Russia has used a significant percentage of ammunition guided by precision including missiles launched by air and sea and lost as many as 4,000 tanks and other armored vehicles, he said.
“Many of that are because anti-armor systems such as javelin, such as AT4, but also frankly because of creativity and ingenuity in the way Ukraine uses the system,” he said.
Putin has not tried to support his military by ordering mass mobilization, possibly because it will risk forcing the Russian public to face the cost of war that is guarded so far from their arms so far. But regional officials have offered cash incentives to encourage people to volunteer in short -term contracts, while the Low Parliament Assembly in May abolished the upper age limit for the Army Office.
Russian troops withdrew from cities around US javelin missiles on the front lines in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photographer: John Moore/Getty Images Europe
The Russian government also moved last month to increase weapons production by seeking strength to ease labor regulations in defense companies, quoting “short -term increases in the need to improve weapons and military equipment.”
The Russian military system relies on the microelectronic components designed and produced in the US, Europe and East Asia, according to new reports from the Royal United Services Institute in London, based on examination of the remaining equipment used in Ukraine.
Even when he tried to support his troops on the battlefield, Russia’s profits in Eastern Ukraine continued to be very limited and slow in the last few days, according to intelligence officials.
Vasily Kashin, a Russian military expert in Moscow Economic College, said countries should not underestimate Russian resources. But he said that importing weapons might still be useful, noting that North Korea has a long-term multi-launch rocket system that is “stronger than that of Russia.”
“Of course Russia has several problems on the battlefield, but we do not see evidence that he imports any weapon for his war against Ukraine,” he said. “However, maybe it’s good to do.”