Russian cruiser crosses the Suez Canal heading to Syria to participate military operations

According to the official Egyptian official press agency MENA, an unnamed shipping source at the Suez Canal Authority said that the Russian cruiser Varyag led a convoy through the Suez Canal coming from the Red Sea on its way to the Mediterranean Sea via Port Said in the north-east of Egypt.

The source explained that a huge Egyptian lorry accompanied the giant cruiser, whose weight amounted to nearly 11 tonnes, during its crossing of the waterway, which took nearly 12 hours.

In December, Varyag took part in the international naval exercises Indra Navy 2015 in Indian waters, before moving on to the Omani port of Salalah.

The Syrian crisis took a new turn after Russia began to attack cities, towns and sites in Syria in September. Russia says that this intervention “targets [Daesh] centres”, but this has been denied by Washington, Western capitals and Syrian opposition forces, who all believe that more than 90 per cent of Russian targets do not include any Daesh locations, but rather target civilians and opposition factions.