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| This photo taken on April 11, 2023 shows the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major passing through Turkey's Bosphorus Channel | Photo: Reuters |
A Russian cargo ship, the Ursa Major, has sunk in the Mediterranean Sea. The country's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it sank the previous night after an explosion in the ship's engine room. Some sailors have been rescued, but two are still missing, authorities said.
Ursa Major ship, built in 2009, was controlled by the Russian Defense Ministry's construction department, Obronlogistika. The company had previously said that the ship was heading to the eastern Russian port of Vladivostok and was carrying two large port cranes.
From the Russian Foreign Ministry's crisis center said that 14 of the 16 sailors on the ship had been rescued and taken to Spain. Two were still missing. The statement did not say what caused the explosion in the engine room.
The Russian embassy in Spain was quoted by the RIO news agency as saying that the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the ship were being investigated and that the embassy was in contact with Spanish authorities.
ObronLogistics and SK-Yug declined to comment on the sinking. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) said SK-Yug was the direct owner and operator of the ship. The United States banned both companies in 2022 for their ties to the Russian military. The Ursa Major was also subject to US sanctions.
How it sank
According to LSEG, the ship, Ursa Major, was previously known as Sparta 3. It has had several other names. On December 20, Obronlogistika said in a statement that the ship was heading to Vladivostok with two special port cranes. The cranes were to be installed in the port of Vladivostok. In addition, the ship was carrying equipment for a new icebreaker.
According to LSEG shipping data, the Ursa Major left the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 11. It last transmitted a signal at 2204 GMT on Monday from a position between Algeria and Spain, where it sank. When the ship left St. Petersburg, it said it would stop at the port of Vladivostok as its next destination. It had previously called at the Syrian port of Tartus, but was not scheduled to do so this time.
Ukraine's HUR military intelligence service, which monitors Russian ship movements, reported on its Telegram channel on Monday that another Russian ship, the Sparta, had temporarily experienced mechanical problems off Portugal. It later updated that the Sparta's sailors had fixed the problem and it was heading to Syria.