A cargo ship that belonged to a division of Russia’s defense ministry-affiliated Oboronlogistika, which also handles logistics and civilian transportation, capsized in international waters.
According to the Russian state-owned business that owns the cargo ship, a “terrorist act” caused the ship to sink in international waters in the Mediterranean this week.
In a statement reported by Russian news outlets on Wednesday, the Oboronlogistika firm stated that it “thinks a targeted terrorist attack was committed on December 23, 2024, against the Ursa Major,” although it did not specify the motive or the identity of the perpetrator.
Following a distress call for assistance on Monday, the ship sank in international waters off Spain in the early hours of Tuesday.
According to the business, which is part of the Russian Defense Ministry, “three consecutive explosions” occurred aboard the ship before it started to absorb water.
Oboronlogistika did not specify the facts that led it to believe that the Ursa Major was sunk in a terrorist strike.
According to the crisis section of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the ship sank “after an explosion in the engine room” on Tuesday, according to a Tweet.
Two of the 16 Russian crew men on board were reported missing, while the remaining 14 had been rescued and transported to the Spanish port of Cartagena.
The ship reported that it was lowering and that sailors had launched a lifeboat after sending a distress call in strong weather off the coast of southeast Spain on Monday morning, according to a statement from Spain’s maritime rescue service.
The survivors were taken to port by Spain, which dispatched rescue boats and a helicopter, according to the service.
Since the ship was between Algerian and Spanish waters, a Russian destroyer subsequently arrived and assumed command of the rescue effort. The Ursa Major then sank overnight.
MarineTraffic.com describes the Ursa Major as a general cargo ship that is 124.7 meters (409 feet) long.
According to the Russian foreign ministry, it is owned by a division of Oboronlogistika, a defense ministry company that also offers logistics and civilian transportation.
The Ursa Major was in route to Vladivostok in the Far East of Russia from the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg.
The ship was carrying a very big and hefty freight to Vladivostok: 45-ton icebreaker hatch coverings and 380-ton cranes, according to a news statement from Oboronlogistika last week that included pictures of the ship in port.
In 2022, the Ursa Major and Oboronlogistika were sanctioned by the United States for offering “transportation services… for the delivery of cargo to Russian-occupied Crimea”, among other vessels.
Any US organization doing business with the corporation or its ships would therefore run the risk of facing sanctions.
According to Ukraine’s GU
R military intelligence, Russian forces in Syria, where Moscow has a naval port at Tartus, were also supplied by the Ursa Major.
