KALININGRAD, September 05. /ITAR-TASS/. A Russian Baltic fleet escort ship, the Yaroslav Mudryi, arrived in the Gulf of Aden on Friday as part of an international effort to protect commercial ships from pirates operating in the region.

Every year, about 20,000 merchant ships pass through the seas off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, which form an important sea line of communication between Asia and Europe. The important ocean area of the Gulf of Aden has in recent years seen the expansion of harm caused by pirates. Russia has joined an international campaign to protect the safety of navigation in the Gulf of Aden.

“The Baltic marines on board of the Yaroslav Mudryi have been trained to fight pirates,” Captain Vladimir Matveyev, a spokesperson for the Baltic fleet’s Western Military District, told Itar-Tass. The Kola tanker that entered the Gulf of Aden together with the Yaroslav Mudryi will provide logistics support for the escort ship during its mission.

“The Yaroslav Mudryi left Baltiysk, a home base for the Russian Baltic fleet, on August 9, 2014. The ship covered over 5,000 nautical miles. It called at the Spanish enclave port of Ceuta on Africa’s Mediterranean coast and the port of Valletta on Malta during the cruise.

The Yaroslav Mudryi has become Russia’s second escort ship after the Neustrashymyi to carry out an anti-piracy cruise in the Gulf of Aden.

The Neustrashimyi has made three long-distance cruises to the African Horn - in 2008, 2010 and 2013. He became the first Russian Navy ship to protect the safety of navigation of Russian and foreign ships off the coast of Somalia.