ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Following the collapse of a ceasefire in Syria announced by the United States and Russia this week, tensions between the two superpowers have been escalating, with Moscow sending an aircraft carrier to the region and US officials blaming the Russians for an attack on an aid convoy.
Moscow’s official RT news website reported that the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov will join the Russian naval group in the eastern Mediterranean, quoting defense ministry officials as saying it will be used to “aid the anti-terrorist mission in Syria.”
“Currently, the Russian naval group in the eastern Mediterranean includes at least six warships and three or four support vessels from all fleets,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced during a meeting of ministry officials on Wednesday.
“To increase the combat capabilities of the group, (we) plan to include the cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov into its ranks,” Shoigu said.
The minister added that the deployment is part of the Russian naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, renewed in 2013, which ensures the country’s interests and helps “to maintain peace.”
According to a source cited by Interfax, the Admiral Kuznetsov will join the country’s naval unit in mid-October, with the mission expected to last between four and five months.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that the United States has reached the preliminary conclusion that Russian warplanes bombed an aid convoy and warehouse belonging to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
"All the evidence we have points to that conclusion," it quoted one of the two officials cited for the report as saying.
Russia has denied that it, or its ally the Syrian government, were responsible for the attack on an aid convoy near Aleppo Monday night, in which 20 civilians and a member of the Syrian Red Crescent were killed.
There is still no conclusive evidence of what happened.
Eighteen trucks from a Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) 31-truck convoy of aid were destroyed on Monday night west of Aleppo in what is being widely described as an airstrike.
