Russia has no warships left in the Mediterranean for the first time in more than a decade

 

Russia has no warships left in the Mediterranean for the first time in more than a decade

Beyond Ukrainian strikes that have significantly degraded the Black Sea Fleet, the remaining warships are now being forced to escort critical oil tankers to prevent them from being seized.

According to NATO officials speaking to The Telegraph, the vessels have been pulled out to escort Putin’s sanctioned oil tankers a priority Moscow now considers more important than projecting power at sea. With Western countries seizing Russian commercial ships and describing the moves as sanctions enforcement, Putin sees those tankers as vital economic lifelines that must be protected.

The strain runs deeper: Ukrainian strikes have heavily damaged the Black Sea Fleet, Turkey continues to keep the straits closed to Russian warships, and reliable access to Syria’s Tartus base has been lost after the Assad regime was toppled in 2024. The result, officials say, is a surface fleet in “shambles” or stretched too thin, that simply cannot cover both missions at once.