On Monday, the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major sank in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea, between Spain and Algeria. Two of the 16 crew members, all of Russian nationality, are missing, while the survivors were taken to the Spanish city of Cartagena. The company that owns the ship, Oboronlogistika, has said the ship was the target of a “targeted terrorist act.” Meanwhile, there are versions that indicate that the ship was on a secret mission. This is what is known.
He Ursa Major It sailed on December 11 from the city of Saint Petersburgin the northwest of Russiaaccording to the portal MarineTraffic.com. Officially, he was heading to the port of Vladivostokalthough according to the British press, his true route would have been different.
Oboronlogistika It is a company that depends on the Ministry of Defense of Russia.
The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major during a monitoring operation carried out by the Portuguese Navy along the continental Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). (Photo: Portuguese Navy / AFP).
/
On Wednesday, the company said that The ship was destroyed by three powerful explosions just above the waterline.
In a statement released by the state news agency RIA Novosti, Oboronlogistika He said the explosions left a hole in the ship’s starboard side and filled the engine room with acrid smoke, making the crew’s attempts to access it difficult.
The company added that damage to the engine room made it impossible to activate the pumps to keep the ship afloat.
According to Oboronlogistikahe Ursa Major was carrying two large 380-ton cranes and other equipment to the port of Vladivostokon the eastern coast of Russia.
About Oboronlogistikaa shipping and logistics company, are under sanctions from the United States and the European Union for their links with the Russian army, according to the AP agency.
The “secret mission”
The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major during a monitoring operation carried out by the Portuguese Navy. (AFP).
/
The British newspaper The Sun reported on Tuesday that in fact the Ursa Major was in one secret mission of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putinwhen it was sunk in the Mediterranean.
The Sun maintained that Ukrainian and Spanish intelligence sources assured that he was heading to Syria to take weapons from that country, an ally of the Russians and where the dictator was overthrown on December 8 Bashar al Assad by rebel militias led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS).
The military intelligence of Ukraine has reported that after the fall of Al Assad, Russia has been removing military equipment from Syria to move it to Libya.
The British media added that if the mission was to go to Syriathe boat would probably have had to reach the port of Tartuswhere there is a Russian naval base, to pick up cargo.
The official Russian version is that the Ursa Major was heading to Vladivostok and transported huge cranes destined for the construction of a modern nuclear icebreaker.
Meanwhile, the Russian media Midzone reported that five Russian cargo ships, including three large military landing craft and two cargo ships, recently entered the Mediterranean.
Both the Ursa Major like another ship, the Spartaparticipated for a long time in the so-called “Syrian Express”, a supply route for Russian forces in Syria, recalled The Sun.
According to the BBC, earlier this month Ukrainian military intelligence reported that the Sparta was heading to the naval base Tartus to remove Russian military equipment from Syria.
Russian submarines at the Russian naval base in the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus on September 26, 2019. (Photo by Maxime POPOV / AFP).
/
BBC also said the Sparta ran into trouble a week ago in rough seas off Brittany in northwest France. Radio France International (RFI) reported that the Russian cargo ship did not initially respond to French communications on Tuesday, December 17, until it acknowledged it had a problem.
“I’m in trouble. My engines are broken and the tiller is not responding. We are going to try to repair it in the next few minutes,” the Sparta captain reportedly said, according to RFI.
After being adrift for 61 minutes, Sparta said it was back on course, the BBC noted.
For his part, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, Dmytro Pletenchuksaid on Tuesday that Russia was facing “systemic problems” in maintaining its fleet, but gave no indication that kyiv was involved in the sinking of the Ursa Major.
The Ursa Major, 142 meters long and 23 meters wide, was built in 2009 and It had a loading capacity of 1,200 tons. International sanctions have weighed on the company that operated it since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
According to the company’s website, the company covers, among others, a route connecting Novorosiisk, in the south of Russia over the Black Sea, with Tartusthe Russian naval base in Syria.
