Last night, around 9:00 PM CET, a Russian Air Force Antonov An-124 (reg. RA-82038) landed at Al Khadim Air Base, east of Benghazi, Libya, after departing from Latakia Air Base, Syria.
This marks the first time we have tracked an An-124 landing in Libya and, more importantly, the first time a Russian transport aircraft has been observed shuttling directly between Syria and Libya.
In the past, we had tracked Russian aircraft flying between the two countries, but they typically continued on to Central Africa after making a stopover in Libya. The Ruslan, however, remained in Libya for approximately three hours before taking off again for Syria around midnight.
The well-founded suspicion is that Russia is transferring military equipment and assets from Syria to Libya, rather than returning all of them to Russia as it has done with some in the past.
While it is still too early to draw definitive conclusions, Moscow’s focus appears increasingly directed toward the North African country. It is worth noting that a significant contingent of former Wagner Group mercenaries is already operating in Cyrenaica, the part of Libya under the control of General Haftar.
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