Russian ship under US sanctions sinks after engine room blast

The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major has sunk in the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Algeria after an explosion in the engine room, the Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed.

It said 14 crew members were rescued and taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena but two others were missing.

The Ursa Major left the port of St Petersburg 12 days ago, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

The ship’s owner said it was heading to Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East carrying two 380-ton port cranes, although its destination was not independently confirmed.

Before the Ursa Major sank, the Spanish rescue agency Salvamento Marítimo said 14 people were found in a lifeboat and safely taken to Spain and a Russian warship arrived in the area to carry out rescue operations.

The Ursa Major was in the same area of ​​the Med as another Russian charter ship, the Sparta, when it ran into problems and the two ships were seen transiting the English Channel last week, reportedly escorted.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) reported that the Spartan army was heading to the Russian military base on the Syrian coast in Tartous to disarm Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

A Kremlin official said Monday that Russia is meeting with Syria’s new regime over the fate of its two military bases. at the diplomatic and military level.

The owner of Ursa Major Oboronlogistika has been involved in shipping cargo to Tartous, although Sparta’s destination on Tuesday was Port Said in Egypt.

Navigation monitoring site LSEG told the BBC that the Ursa Major’s automatic ID system (AIS) showed that its destination since December 11 was Vladivostok, although on a previous trip in September the destination came up as Tartous.

On Monday, HUR reported that Sparta had broken down in Portugal, but the problem had been fixed. The Ursa Major was also known as the Sparta III, so it was unclear which ship he was referring to.

It is not known what caused the eruption of Ursa Major as it passed between Oran in Algeria and the Spanish town of Águilas.

However, a video taken from a Ross Sea tanker between 12:00-13:00GMT on Monday, and confirmed by the BBC, showed that the ship was in good condition.

It later sank at around 01:20GMT on Tuesday.

The Ursa Major was built in 2009 and allowed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 due to the ship’s owner’s role in supplying goods to the Russian military.

Oboronlogistika said the cargo ship, which it described as one of the largest in its fleet, was carrying 45 tonnes of broken containers, as well as large port cranes in Vladivostok.