At the beginning of January 2024, the Mediterranean Sea saw the departure of the diesel-electric submarine B-261 "Novorossiysk" (formally part of the Russian Black Sea Fleet), which had been based in the Syrian port of Tartus. This submarine, belonging to project 636.6 "Varshavyanka," is capable of carrying up to four Kalibr cruise missiles.
The passage of this submarine through Gibraltar was recorded by the Portuguese Navy aviation, which released corresponding images on January 4, 2025. This indicates that Russia no longer has any submarines in the Mediterranean Sea, which is a significant marker, as noted in a publication by Naval News.
The authors of the publication emphasize that the aforementioned B-261 "Novorossiysk" was the only submarine in the operational group of the Russian Navy based in Syrian Tartus at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. Typically, the Russians have always aimed to maintain their presence in the region in such a way that at least one submarine was always among their vessels (noting that Russian "pennants" in Tartus were stationed on a rotational basis).
Theoretically, a replacement for B-261 "Novorossiysk" was sent by the Russians at the end of the previous year; this is reportedly about the diesel-electric submarine B-608 "Mozhaysk," which formally belongs to the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy and was commissioned at the end of 2023, but in reality, it was located in the Baltic Sea.
However, the nuance is that although on December 31, 2024, it was recorded that B-608 "Mozhaysk" left the waters of the Baltic Sea, this submarine did not subsequently "appear" in the waters of the English Channel, which is indeed quite strange.
If the Russians do not rotate another submarine into Tartus, it will clearly indicate Russia's preparation for leaving this naval base. The criterion is simple – due to technical deficiencies, Russian submarines always spend more time at bases than they do at sea on patrol; consequently, if there are no more Russian submarines in Tartus, it means the Russians do not expect to remain there for an extended period.
From Defense Express, we would like to remind you of one point – after the onset of the full-scale war against Ukraine, one frigate of project 11356 "Admiral Grigorovich," one missile corvette of project 21631 "Buyan-M," and two submarines of project 636.6 from the Black Sea Fleet became "stuck" off the coast of Syria, as Russia did not manage to return them to temporarily occupied Crimea because Turkey closed the passage to the Black Sea for Russian military ships on February 27, 2022.
Against this backdrop, the Kremlin decided to use these ships to demonstrate presence in the Mediterranean region. By the way, this grouping is what the Ukrainian Navy refers to when it counts the number of "Calibr" carriers, including those in the Mediterranean, in its morning reports.