Russia has sent a battery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to a Russian port near Crimea, apparently in an effort to bolster its air defenses during its war with Ukraine. and now there are satellite images to prove it, This is reported by Reuters.

Russia sent a battery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to a Russian port near CrimeaPhoto: AFP / AFP / Profimedia

ImageSat International (ISI) captured images showing the presence of the S-300 battery in Masiaf, Syria, in April, as well as the empty pad that remained on August 25 after it was sent to the port of Tartus.

PHOTO: AFP / AFP / Profimedia

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.

The Russian Ministry of Defense declined to comment.

Russia has maintained a military presence in Syria since 2015, when it intervened in the civil war on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

If the transmission is confirmed, it would signal a major step by Russia to strengthen air defenses near the theater of war in Ukraine, where its forces have come under devastating attacks in recent weeks.

In one such incident, eight Russian fighter jets were destroyed this month in a series of explosions at an air base in Crimea.

The ISI images showed that the radar component of the S-300 battery was moved separately from the same Masyaf base to Hmeimim Air Base on the Syrian coast, north of Tartus.

Analysts at the company said they estimated the radar’s size and weight made it unsuitable for shipping by sea and could require airlift on an Il-76 aircraft from Khmeimim back to Russia.