Russian ship that sank off Spanish coast was blown up in 'act of terrorism', owner says

A Russian cargo ship that ran into trouble in the Mediterranean Sea and sank on Monday was rocked by a series of three explosions in "an act of terrorism," state news agency RIA has cited the vessel's owner as saying.

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.

RIA cited Oboronlogistika, the ship's ultimate owner and a company that is part of the Russian Defence Ministry's military construction operations, as saying on Wednesday that the vessel had been targeted in "a terrorist act".

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 1.50pm Moscow time in the vessel's aft on 23 December.

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.

It was carrying two giant port cranes on its deck with their loading buckets, two heavy hatch covers for ice-breaking vessels, 129 empty containers, and a 20-foot container with roofing equipment, RIA said.

Oboronlogistika had said that the ship had been en route to the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok.

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 at the time. 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.

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.

Two vessels and a helicopter had been sent to the scene and the 14 surviving crew members taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena.

LSEG ship tracking data shows the vessel departed from the Russian port of St Petersburg on 11 December and was last seen sending a signal at 2204 GMT on Monday, between Algeria and Spain where it sank.

On leaving St Petersburg it had indicated that its next port of call was the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian port of Tartous which it has called at in the past.

- Reuters