The huge landing warship “Novocherkassk” of the Russian Black Sea fleet has left Sunday its port in Novorossiysk city heading towards Syria.

The huge landing ship “Novocherkassk” of the Russian Black Sea fleet has left Sunday its port in Novorossiysk city heading towards eastern Mediterranean to the technical support base at Tartous Syrian national port.

The Novocherkassk is the third such craft dispatched since Friday to Tartous.

An unnamed official in the Russian general staff told Interfax news agency that several military vehicles and one naval infantry unit have joined Novocherkassk on Saturday.

“The landing ship is scheduled to cross the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits Monday. On January 1st it will enter Aegean Sea to join a combat ships squad of the Black Sea fleet, which carries out combat missions in the Mediterranean Sea,” the source added.

The military source stated that Novocherkassk would arrive at Tartous within the first 10 days of January.

The three landing ships will be joining what Russian reports said was a much broader exercise off the coast of Syria involving vessels from three naval fleets.