Russia’s disappearance from the Mediterranean shows a navy stretched considerably thinner than its paper strength suggests, but the ships it does have remain dangerous and well handled, a naval analyst has told the UK Defence Journal.
Tom Sharpe, ex-navy Commander and Daily Telegraph columnist, who wrote about the Russian retreat from Tartus in December 2024, was responding to our report that a NATO official had confirmed Russia has had no sustained naval presence in the Mediterranean since June, the first time in ten years.
He told me: “Russia is clearly stretched thin. Their loss of the Med as a base shows this. But what they do have still has teeth, and some of it is well run. As their war in Ukraine goes from bad to worse, we are entering a worrying period, just at the time when our ability to counter or deter is equally low. Any sense that the new Prime Minister, Chancellor or Defence Secretary was going to inject funds to help reverse this are fading by the day.”
NATO outnumbers Russia at sea as Mediterranean presence ends
Terminal decline
On the Mediterranean itself, he said previously that the position had been in terminal decline since the loss of Tartus, and that while there had been talk of Russia using ports in Libya, he was not convinced any of them were suitable for long-term logistics support. Russia has recently been reduced to refuelling from a repair ship, a vessel built as a floating workshop rather than a tanker and carrying none of the equipment needed to pass fuel safely between two moving hulls.
NATO Maritime Command has meanwhile continued to draw attention to Russian movements through the region, making a distinction between vessels transiting the Mediterranean and the permanent or sustained presence Russia previously maintained there. In a message issued on Thursday, MARCOM stated: “We. Are. Watching. From the #BalticSea to the #Mediterranean, #NATO maintains constant vigilance at sea.”
It added: “#SNMG2 contributes to this maritime picture, monitoring Russian vessels transiting through the Med. We’re keeping a close watch across the Euro-Atlantic. From north to south, NATO’s maritime forces remain alert 24/7.”
