Two warships from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet returned on Saturday from the Mediterranean to the home port of Sevastopol, a fleet spokesman said.
The large military landing craft Nikolai Filchenkov and Caesar Kunikov have accomplished their missions in the Mediterranean, Capt. 1st Rank Vyacheslav Trukhachev said.
Over the past three months, they have rehearsed “interaction, communication, antiaircraft, antisubmarine and other operations” together with the Smetlivy, a Kashin-class guided missile destroyer, in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, he said.
A high-ranking source in the Russian Navy on Friday denied media reports that a flotilla of Russian warships will remain in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis, adding, however, that the Russian Black Sea Fleet, responsible for the Mediterranean region, will send individual ships to the area.
Ten warships, together with escort vessels from Russia’s Northern, Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, entered the Mediterranean Sea earlier this month. The ships are to convene in early August for joint exercises.
The Navy said earlier this month that the deployment was not linked to the current crisis in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed in an almost 17-month-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
