01/14/2026
The Iranian cargo ship Rona is sinking in the Caspian Sea, near the waters
of Turkmenistan. The ship may have been traveling the same route used by ships transporting weapons from Iran to Russia.
This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan . The crew members , consisting of citizens of Iran and India , were rescued from the ship.
Shipwreck in the Caspian Sea
Dushanbe is currently conducting formal procedures stipulated by international rules, including establishing all the circumstances of the incident . The sailors’ condition is not reported.
At the same time, the Russian opposition publication “Important Stories” reported that, according to data from maritime monitoring systems, between October 2024 and December 2025, Rona called at the ports of Astrakhan, Makhachkala, and Azov about twenty times , making transits from Amirabad and Anzeli.
At the time of the signal, the ship was sailing towards Astrakhan along a route that, according to open data, was used for regular sea traffic between Iran and Russia.
Three years ago, investigative journalists for the American television channel CNN established that the main route for alleged seaborne arms shipments from Iran to Russia runs through the Caspian Sea between Astrakhan, Amirabad and Anzeli. With the strengthening of cooperation between Tehran and Moscow, this route has been used to transport drones and ammunition that Russia is using in the war against Ukraine.
At the same time, analysts also recorded suspicious behavior of the ships: tracking systems were turned off on board, there were long periods without data transmission, and voyages without official port calls.
As a reminder, earlier the American television channel CNN reported that Russia had built the country’s largest factory for the production of Shahed-136 drones , thereby leaving Iran without control over production, while developing its own technologies.
As OBOZ.UA reported, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has a “plan B” prepared in case the situation in the country sharply worsens and may flee to Moscow.