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A Russian cargo ship called Ursa Major sank in the Mediterranean Sea overnight after an explosion ripped through its engine room and two of its crew are still missing, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
The vessel, built in 2009, was controlled by Oboronlogistika, a company that is part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s military construction operations, which had previously said it was en route to the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok with two giant port cranes lashed to its deck.
The Foreign Ministry’s crisis center said in a statement that 14 of the ship’s 16 crew members had been rescued and brought to Spain, but that two were still missing. It did not say what had caused the engine room explosion.
Russia’s embassy in Spain was cited by the state RIA news agency as saying it was looking into the circumstances of the sinking and was in touch with the authorities in Spain.
Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, a company LSEG lists as part of the group and the ship’s direct owner and operator, declined to comment on the sinking. Both entities were placed under sanctions by the United States in 2022 for their ties to Russia’s military as was the Ursa Major itself.
Unverified video footage of the ship heavily listing to its starboard side with its bow much lower down in the water than usual was filmed on Dec. 23 by a passing ship and published on Russia’s life.ru news outlet on Tuesday.
Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said it had received a distress signal from the Ursa Major on Monday when it was located about 57 miles off the coast of Almeira.
It said it had contacted a ship nearby which had reported bad weather conditions, a lifeboat in the water, and said the Ursa Major was listing to the starboard side.
