A Russian cargo ship has passed through the English Channel under the protection of a war ship, new pictures reveal. The Baltic Leader was pictured by the Times on March 3 sailing through the Dover Strait, having picked up weapons from Syria on February 28.

       It was being protected by the Russian warship Boikiy, armed with machine guns. The Baltic Leader picked up military hardware from Russia's base in Tartus, Syria. The huge vessel is the third of its kind in the last four weeks to carry Russian weapons from Syria via the Channel. Two more Russian ships are expected to make the same trip in the weeks to come.

       High resolution satellite images taken at the start of February show the Baltic Leader loading up in Syria, according to Joseph Byrne, senior analyst at the Open Source Centre. "While it isn’t exactly clear what cargo the vessel is loading, Tartus is a port where Russia has been storing its military equipment, likely waiting for transport," he said.

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       "Since mid-February we have seen a number of Russian flagged cargo vessels sail from Syria into the Mediterranean and through the English Channel," he added.

       "They have exhibited highly similar patterns of life, including switching off their transponders when entering Syrian waters and ports, not broadcasting their final destinations, and appearing to sail through the Channel with a military escort for protection."

       The reason Russia is taking its cargo the long way round Europe, via the Straits of Gibraltar, Dover, and the Great Belt between Sweden and Denmark, is that Ukraine has becoming increasingly adept at sinking Russian vessels in the Black Sea.

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       "Ukraine could destroy hundreds of tons of vital Russian military material in one go by attacking the ships and that’s a huge risk for Russia to take," according to James Droxford of the intelligence consultancy Droxford Maritime.

       He added that the Baltic Leader may play a key role in Putin's ability to continue to wage war in Ukraine: “The recovered military hardware onboard Baltic Leader could be used to reinforce Russia’s combat capability in Ukraine, or to replenish military stocks in other key Russian military regions.”