Russian ship sunk near Spanish coast shot up in "act of terrorism," RIA notes owner

Russian ship sunk near Spanish coast shot up in "act of terrorism," RIA notes owner

This still image, taken from a video released on December 23, 2024, shows the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major, which the Russian Foreign Ministry claims sank in the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Algeria following an explosion in its engine room. (Image: REUTERS via social media)

A sequence of three explosions in "an act of terrorism," official news agency RIA reported on Wednesday, rocked MOSCOW, a Russian cargo ship that ran into problems on Monday, Dec 23, in the Mediterranean Sea and later sank.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the "Ursa Major," built in 2009, sank after an explosion ripped through its engine room and that two of its 16 crew were missing.

On Wednesday, RIA said the ship had been attacked in "a terrorist act," citing Oboronlogistika, the ultimate owner of the ship and a business involved in military building activities under the Russian Defence Ministry.

It cited Oboronlogistika as saying that the ship's surviving 14 crew members had reported that three consecutive explosions on the ship's starboard side had detonated at 1350 Moscow time (1050 GMT) in the vessel's aft on Dec. 23. The ship had then begun to sharply list as it was obviously taking in water, RIA cited Oboronlogistika as saying. The ship was not overloaded, it added.

RIA stated it was carrying two massive port cranes on its deck with their loading buckets, two hefty hatch covers for ice-breaking vessels, 129 empty containers, and a 20-foot container with roofing supplies.

According to Oboronlogistika, the ship was on way to Vladivostok, the Russian far eastern port.

At the time of the sinking, Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, the ship's direct owner and operator and a firm listed by LSEG as part of the group, declined to comment. In 2022, the United States imposed sanctions on both organizations and the Ursa Major itself because to its connections to the Russian military. 

The Ursa Major was 57 miles off the coast of Almeira on Monday when it sent out a distress call to Spain's Maritime Rescue Service. The 14 surviving crew members were transported to the Spanish port of Cartagena after two ships and a helicopter were dispatched to the incident.

According to LSEG ship monitoring data, the ship left the Russian port of St. Petersburg on December 11 and was last observed transmitting a signal between Algeria and Spain, where it sank, at 2204 GMT on Monday.

 Upon departing St. Petersburg, it had stated that the Russian port of Vladivostok would be its next stop, rather than Tartous, Syria, where it had previously made a stop.