Russian ship under US sanctions sinks after engine room explosion

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

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

Ursa Major left the harbor in St. Petersburg 12 days ago, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

The ship’s owner said it was bound for Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East with two port cranes weighing 380 tonnes each, although the destination could not be independently confirmed.

Before the Ursa Major sank, Spain’s Salvamento Marítimo maritime rescue agency said 14 people were found on a lifeboat and taken safely to Spain, and a Russian warship then arrived in the area to take charge of the rescue operation.

The Ursa Major was in the same area of ​​the Mediterranean as another sanctioned Russian ship, the Sparta, when it ran into trouble, and the two ships had been seen heading through the English Channel last week, reportedly under escort.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) reported that Sparta was on its way to Russia’s naval base on the Syrian coast at Tartous to move military equipment out of Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

A Kremlin official said Monday that Russia was in contact with Syria’s new rulers about the future of its two military facilities, both diplomatically and militarily.

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

Marine transport monitoring website LSEG told the BBC that the Ursa Major’s automatic ID system (AIS) showed that its destination since December 11 had been Vladivostok and that its last call at the port of Tartous had been in July.

On Monday, HUR reported that Sparta had broken down off Portugal, but the problem had been resolved. The Ursa Major was originally known as the Sparta III, so it was not clear which ship the Ukrainians were referring to.

However, Sparta also ran into difficulties a week ago, in rough seas off Brittany in northwestern France. Radio France Inter reported that the Russian cargo ship initially did not respond to French communications on Tuesday, December 17, before acknowledging that it had a problem.

“I’m in trouble. My engines are currently down, the rudder is unresponsive. We’ll try to fix it in the next few minutes,” RFI reported that the ship’s radio said.

After drifting for 61 minutes, the Sparta said it was back on course.

It is not known what caused the explosion on Ursa Major as it passed between Oran, Algeria, and the Spanish city of Águilas on Monday afternoon.

Video recorded from the tanker Ross Sea between However, at 12:00-13:00 GMT on 23 December, and verified by the BBC, the ship showed poorly.

It finally sank around 01:20 GMT on Tuesday.

The Ursa Major was built in 2009 and sanctioned after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 due to the shipowner’s role in supplying cargo to the Russian military.

Oboronlogistika said the cargo ship, which it described as the flagship of its fleet, was carrying 45-tonne hatch covers for icebreakers, as well as the large cranes for the port of Vladivostok.

Additional reporting from BBC Verify’s Josh Cheetham, Paul Brown and Daniele Palumbo