A Russian cargo ship is sinking in the Mediterranean after an explosion, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

Written by Andrew Osborn and Gleb Stolyarov

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian cargo ship called the Ursa Major sank in the Mediterranean Sea overnight after an engine exploded amidships and two crew members are still missing, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The ship, which was built in 2009, was controlled by Oboronlogistika, a company that is part of the military construction of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which previously said it was on its way to the eastern Russian port of Vladivostok with two large ports on deck.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Crisis Center said in a statement that 14 of the 16 crew members of the ship were rescued and brought to Spain, but two were still missing. It did not say what caused the engine room explosion.

The Russian embassy in Spain was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying that it is looking into the circumstances of the sinking and is in contact with Spanish authorities.

Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, a company LSEG counts as part of the group and direct owner and operator of the vessel, declined to comment on the sinking. Both organizations were placed under sanctions by the United States in 2022 due to their ties to the Russian military, as was Ursa Major itself.

Unverified video footage of the ship showing its starboard side and its bow much lower in the water than usual was captured on December 23 by a passing ship and published on the Russian news site life.ru on Tuesday.

Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said it received a distress signal from Ursa Major on Monday when it was located 57 kilometers off the coast of Almeira.

When it contacted a nearby ship that reported bad weather, a lifeboat, it said Ursa Major was counting the side of the star.

Two ships and a helicopter were sent to the scene and the 14 surviving crew members were taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena.

It mentioned that the crew said that the ship was carrying empty containers as well as two port cranes on board.

A Russian warship later arrived at the scene, he said, and took over the rescue.

DEDICATION

Oboronlogistika, the last owner of the ship, in a statement dated December 20 said that the ship, which LSEG data shows was previously called Sparta III among other names, was carrying special port cranes to be installed in the port of Vladivostok as such. new ice breaker parts.

Two large cranes can be seen tied to the ground in unconfirmed video footage.

LSEG ship tracking data shows that the ship left the Russian port of St. Petersburg on December 11 and was last seen sending a signal at 2204 GMT on Monday between Algeria and Spain where it sank.

When he left St. Petersburg revealed that its next port of call was the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian port of Tartous which it had previously called on.

Separately, Ukraine’s military intelligence service HUR – which monitors the movements of Russian ships – said in a post on its official Telegram channel on Monday that a separate Russian cargo ship, named Sparta, experienced technical problems temporarily off the coast of Portugal.

HUR said in an update that Sparta’s crew had fixed the problem, however, he said the ship was on its way to Syria to collect soldiers and ammunition after the fall of Russia’s friend Bashar al-Assad.

Reuters could not confirm HUR’s assertions about Sparta’s destination or purpose.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Gleb Stolyarov; Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo in Madrid and Max Hunder; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Tomasz Janowski)