Russia Syria: Battle group ‘refuels off North Africa’

No Russian warships will be refuelled in Malta on their way to Syria, the country’s foreign minister has said, after Russia withdrew its request to refuel at a Spanish port amid global outrage. Russian diplomats and others say that the USA orchestrated a coup in the Ukraine, then used Russia’s response as a pretext for moving troops closer to the border. The NATO plans to set up four battle groups – a total of 4,000 troops – backed by a rapid reaction force of 40,000 troops. The Russian embassy formally withdrew the fueling request soon after, according to a statement from the Spanish Foreign Ministry.

The foreign ministry said Spain had in September given Russian Federation permission to refuel from October 28 to November 2.

The ministry added that it had considered – upon agreement with Spain – the possibility of a “business” docking of some of the ships or a maintenance ship into Ceuta’s port. In early October, Russia’s Defence Ministry said the two warships left its base in Black Sea to join the Russian naval force in the Mediterranean.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels at the start of the meetings of NATO Defense Ministers, Stoltenberg described Russia’s continued support for the Assad regime in Syria as “deeply troubling”.

Jens Stoltenberg, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation secretary general, said the carrier group, which passed through the English Channel last week, could be used to bomb civilians in the city.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation naval vessels are tracking the Russian fleet headed to Syria, and alliance officials said they were also monitoring two Russian warships that recently entered the Baltic Sea. Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister, said on Twitter: “Spain signed European Union statement on Russian war crimes in Aleppo last week; today helps refuel fleet on way to commit more atrocities.

It is of course absurd”, Kelin said, noting that the Russian Air Force hasn’t carried out airstrikes in Aleppo for the last nine days.

The ships were part of an eight-ship carrier battle group – including Russia’s sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov – that is expected to join around 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast, diplomats said.

The verbal fireworks exploded after Undersecretary-General Stephen O’Brien briefed the U.N. Security Council on what he called “the apocalyptic horror” in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, where 400 people have been killed and almost 2,000 injured in less than a month, many of them children.

Russian Federation is facing pressure at the United Nations to rein in its Syrian ally and halt the air strikes in rebel-held east Aleppo, where 250,000 civilians have been living under siege since July.

O’Brien demanded that all parties end “these medieval tactics” and grant humanitarian access to Aleppo and the hundreds of thousands of people trapped in 17 other besieged areas around the country.