A Russian flotilla in the Sardinia Channel . There are eight ships , both civilian and military, that are currently sailing off the coast of the island , between the Italian coast and Tunisia. The specialized site Itamilradar.com is monitoring the situation, monitoring the routes of airplanes and boats all over the world, relying on open sources.
The fleet, according to documents, departed from Syria last week. When it was still in the Eastern Mediterranean, it consisted of several ships, including frigates, landing ships, container ships and tankers. In particular, it included the frigate Admiral Grigorovich, the frigate Admiral Golovko, the landing ships Ivan Gren and Alexander Otrakovsky, the container ships Sparta and Sparta II, and the tankers General Skobelev and Vyazma.
"We do not know if all the vessels are still sailing together, but Sparta and Sparta II certainly are," the website states, "as they transmitted their AIS signals in close temporal and physical proximity."
In the area , according to the reconstruction, this morning there were also "two Italian aircraft operating in that stretch of sea ". It seems to be an ATR P-72A of the Italian Air Force (registration MM62280), which took off from Sigonella and operated in the area where the Russian ships were located (even if we do not have a complete trace of the signal for that part of the mission) and an ATR P-72B of the Italian Guardia di Finanza (registration MM62321), which took off from the Pratica di Mare base and was also engaged in surveillance activities in the area.
"The latter appears to have flown over the Russian flotilla before shifting its attention to another target, perhaps a migrant boat, slightly further north," concludes Itamilradar.
(Unioneonline/vf)