An Iranian vessel that could have been carrying weapons to Russia is lost in the Caspian Sea
The Rona ship (Photo: Vessel Finder)

On Wednesday, January 14, the coastal services of Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea received an SOS signal from the Iranian bulk carrier Rona, which was in distress. About this reported The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Central Asian country.

The agency claims to have rescued 14 people from the ship. Preliminary, these are citizens of Iran and India.

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"At this time, the Turkmen side is carrying out the relevant procedures provided for by international rules," the country's Foreign Ministry added.

The Russian media Vazhnye Istorii, which positions itself as an opposition outlet, citing tracking data reports that the vessel had called at the Russian ports of Astrakhan, Makhachkala and Azov 20 times between October 2024 and December 2025. The ship departed from the Iranian ports of Amirabad and Anzali and was now making another voyage to Astrakhan.

Earlier, in May 2023, the American TV channel CNN wrote about a possible route for the supply of weapons from Iran to Russia, pointing specifically to Astrakhan and the aforementioned Iranian ports.

A month earlier, The Wall Street Journal cited anonymous Middle Eastern officials and documents, claimed that over six months, cargo ships transported more than 300,000 artillery shells and one million rounds of ammunition from Iran to Russia. The interlocutors pointed out that intelligence on these shipments was passed on to the United States.

  • In January 2026, Bloomberg, citing an unnamed Western official, reported that Iran had sold about $2.7 billion worth of missiles to Russia, and the first contracts had been signed even before a full-scale invasion in Ukraine.