The SSV-201 intelligence ship Priazovye on Sunday evening started its voyage "to the appointed region of military service in the eastern Mediterranean," a military source told the Interfax news agency.

"The crew have the mission... of collecting operative information in the region of an escalating conflict," it added.

Earlier, Russia also announced plans for deploying an anti-submarine ship and a missile cruiser to the Mediterranean, amid the escalating Western war rhetoric against Syria.

“The well-known situation shaping up in the eastern Mediterranean called for certain corrections to the make-up of the naval forces,” an unnamed source in the Russian General Staff was quoted by Russian news agency Interfax as saying on Thursday.

“A large anti-submarine ship of the Northern Fleet will join them (the existing Russian naval forces) over the next few days. Later it will be joined by the Moskva, a rocket cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet,” the source added.

Moscow is strongly opposed to any military strike on Syria, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believing that the move will critically destabilize the region.

NJF/NJF