Russia is operating a “ghost ship” in the Black Sea as part of a “unique fleet” to swerve restrictions in the waters around southern Ukraine, according to a new report.
Moscow has used “a unique fleet, composed of modern vessels able to move critical cargo undetected” through the Turkish-controlled straits restricting access to the Black Sea, according to research published by the NATO Defense College on Wednesday.
Russian-flagged cargo vessels have journeyed between a Russian base in the Syrian port of Tartus and the Black Sea Fleet’s Novorossiysk military facilities through the Bosphorus, including since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the report’s authors said.
Access to the Black Sea via the Mediterranean, using the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, is controlled by NATO member Turkey. Ankara is able to close access to the Black Sea through these waterways under the Montreux Convention in wartime conditions, which it did shortly after Moscow’s invasion. It limits warships passing through to the Black Sea, although it doesn’t block vessels returning to their home bases.
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The recently released report zeroes in on the Russian-flagged SPARTA IV, a cargo vessel it argues through tracking data, satellite imagery and open-source intelligence resources has been used as a military ship to ferry equipment for Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
SPARTA IV is directly linked to the Russian defense ministry, and has been known to transport military vehicles, according to the report.
A “pattern” has emerged since the start of the war in Ukraine, it argues, in which the SPARTA IV would leave the Russian navy’s military facilities in Novorossiysk, before heading for Syrian territorial waters and then it would stop sending location and tracking data, the report suggested. The ship didn’t dock at the civilian terminal in Novorossiysk, but at the military facilities, the report argued.
The cargo vessel would then travel to the Russian base at Tartus to “load or unload equipment before setting sail again,” restarting tracking data once it had left Syrian waters and was “returning to Novorossiysk to load or unload cargo.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.
Russia’s Black Sea fleet has maintained pressure on Ukraine’s southern coastline, and is partly based in Novorossiysk and in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. The bases provide Russia with a way to project its naval power through to the Mediterranean.
The Turkey-controlled Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits have repeatedly hit the headlines as Ankara brokered a deal to allow Ukrainian grain to be exported via the waterways in July 2022. The deal held for a year, until Russia withdrew its participation in July 2023.