Turkey’s ambassador to Ukraine Yagmur Ahmet Güldere was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday for an explanation after Russia shipped S-300 missile systems from Syria to Russia via the Bosphorus Strait, according to satellite images and media reports. I’ll take a break.”

Presence of an S-300 battery in Masiaf, Syria in April and an empty site left on August 25Photo: AFP / AFP / Profimedia

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Mykola Tochytsky, conveyed to the Ambassador of Turkey the concern of the Ukrainian side about the available information about the transportation of S-300 missile systems from Syria to Russia via the Bosphorus by the ship “Sparta”. “.

“The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine drew the attention of the Ambassador of Turkey to the fact that according to the provisions of the Convention on the Regime of the Straits of July 20, 1936, the specified ship falls under the definition of a warship within the meaning of this convention,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said in a statement.

According to the cited document, Tochytskyi appealed to the Turkish side with a request to provide official information regarding the cargo transported by the ship “Sparta II” through the Bosphorus Strait, as well as regarding the measures taken by Turkey to comply with the provisions of the Convention and prevent the further development of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

At the same time, Tochytskyi expressed hope that the Turkish side will strictly adhere to its decision of February 28, 2022 to close the Black Sea Strait to Russian warships during the Russian-Ukrainian war, in accordance with the position of the Republic of Turkey on supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

ImageSat International satellite imagery captured images showing the presence of the S-300 battery in Masiaf, Syria, in April, as well as the empty site left on August 25 after it was sent to the port of Tartus.

Separate images showed battery components at the Tartus pier between August 12 and 17. By August 20, they had disappeared and the ISI concluded that they had been transferred to the Russian ship Sparta II, which had left Tartus for the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

Refinitiv Eikon data shows that the Sparta II is now in Novorossiysk, where it arrived via the Dardanelles Strait in Turkey.

This will confirm the information that appeared a day ago that Russia would manage to pass the S-300 system through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea in the conditions of Turkey’s ban on the transit of warships.