Russian Navy withdraws from Mediterranean Sea

For the first time since 2013, Russia has no military naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea. Open-source intelligence and NATO officials indicate that Russian warships have been absent from the region since late June 2026.

This withdrawal is attributed to two primary factors. First, Turkey has closed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to warships of countries involved in the Ukraine conflict, per the Montreux Convention. Second, the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria has reduced Russian access to its naval base in Tartous.

Concurrently, Moscow has been forced to redeploy naval assets to protect its “Shadow Fleet” of sanctioned oil tankers. Warships, including the frigate Admiral Grigorovich, have been reassigned to escort vessels through high-pressure areas like the English Channel to counter Western monitoring and seizure operations by countries including France, Germany, and the United States.