According to the Dutch Navy, it escorted six Russian ships in the North Sea at the weekend. The fleet consisted of three naval vessels and three civilian ships, which were on their way from the Mediterranean region to a Russian port as part of a Russian task force.
The escorted ships include the landing ships “Alexandr Otrakovsky” (Ropucha class) and “Ivan Gren” (Ivan Gren class), the supply ship “Yelnya” (Altay class), the tanker “General Skobelev” and the transport ships “Sparta” and “Sparta II”.
The group of ships passed through the Dutch Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) before being sent to other NATO-partners. For the escort, the Dutch Navy deployed the “Zr.Ms. Johan de Witt” and the NH90 maritime helicopter for the escort.
Russian naval convoys regularly pass through the Dutch EEZ, which is covered by international agreements on the right of innocent passage. Nevertheless, the Dutch navy accompanies such convoys in order to “monitor the situation and intervene in the event of suspicious activities or disruptions”, according to its own information. It goes on to say: “Among other things, this serves to protect critical underwater infrastructure.”
