Russian Ship Enters Syria's Tartus Port After Two-Week Wait - The Insider

The Russian vessel Sparta II has received clearance to dock at Syria's Tartus port, Orda reports, citing The Insider.

It will likely collect Russian equipment gathered from across the country. The ship reportedly entered the port on January 21 at 8:35 PM Moscow time after departing from its holding position around 6 PM.

The cargo ship had spent nearly two weeks off the Syrian coast.

From January 5-8, Sparta II circled about five nautical miles from Tartus.

When Syrian authorities began patrolling the waters on January 8, the vessel moved further out, just beyond Syria's territorial waters, before later returning closer to shore.

Satellite imagery from Maxar, shared through pro-Russian telegram channels, showed what seems like several Russian naval vessels in the area alongside Sparta II: the frigate Admiral Golovko, and two large landing ships - Ivan Gren and Aleksandr Otrakovsky. 

An OSINT analyst known as MT Anderson also spotted the landing ship Admiral Grigorovich about 8 kilometers from Tartus in images from January 6, though these warships weren't tracked on MarineTraffic.

The satellite images also revealed various equipment and military vehicles collected across Syria.