Spain’s ministry of defence has revealed it monitored the passage of an elderly Russian tanker and two warships through its waters this week.
The operation began on 21 March and ended on Tuesday when the group of vessels entered Portuguese territory.
The ministry said the ships were transiting to the east Mediterranean.
The patrol ships Atalaya and Vigia tracked the progress of the amphibious assault vessels Ivan Green and Aleksander Otrakovsky, and the Russian navy-owned 5,000-dwt product carrier Kola (built 1967).
The Kola, managed by Rosbunker of Kaliningrad, left Baltiysk in Russia on 3 March and is bound for Port Said in Egypt early in April, AIS data shows.
The ship was underway off Algeria 13 hours ago, the last update indicated.
The Spanish vessels carried out surveillance in separate shifts.
The group of Russian ships was located in the early hours of 21 March.
The vessels were then tracked to the Portuguese border, where monitoring was taken over by the Portuguese frigate Bartolomeu Dias.
Spain activated a “reinforced naval presence” in its waters during the operation, the defence ministry said.
The Ukrainska Pravda website reported that in 2021, Spanish authorities refused Russia permission for two warships to anchor at the Ceuta enclave on the northern coast of Africa to refuel and replenish supplies.
Tensions have also been rising in Denmark, where reports have claimed older tankers carrying Russian oil exports have been refusing the use of pilots on board, raising fears of accidents.
Russia’s difficulties in exporting cargoes were added to this week when all Indian refiners barred the acceptance of oil carried on ships owned by the sanctioned state-owned Sovcomflot group.
