In August, Ankara did not stop the Russian ship "Sparta II", which was transporting the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system from Syria to Novorossiysk, located near Ukraine.

 Due to the depletion of stocks of military equipment and ammunition, Russia uses commercial vessels to transport weapons, in particular through the Turkish-controlled Bosphorus Strait. The Ukrainian side demands that Ankara stop Russian ships with weapons, as they are intended to support the occupying forces in the south of the country. The Wall Street Journal writes about this on Friday, September 2.

 Journalists recalled that on Monday, August 29, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine handed over a note to the ambassador of Turkey due to the fact that, according to Kyiv, the Turkish side allowed the passage of the ship "Sparta II" with the S-300 anti-aircraft missile complex through the Bosphorus. As a result, on August 27, the ship arrived in the Russian port of Novorossiysk, which is not far from Ukraine.

 The company "Oboronlogistika", which manages the ship "Sparta II", assured that the ship was transporting commercial cargo weighing 2 thousand tons, including pipes, chemicals, fuel and equipment to Syria, and returned to the Russian Federation with olive oil. Meanwhile, Turkey emphasized that, according to international law, it has no right to obstruct the passage of commercial vessels.

 For their part, US officials claim that Russia's transfer of the S-300 from Syria indicates that the aggressor state is running out of stocks of certain types of weapons and ammunition, which is why it is forced to look for them in remote regions where Russian military operations.

 In a comment to the publication, an unnamed Russian official familiar with the Kremlin's operations in Syria said that this country is "an ideal place to put pressure on NATO," Focus reports.