By Andrew Osborn and Gleb Stolyarov
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian cargo ship referred to as the Ursa Major sank in a single day within the Mediterranean Sea after an explosion devastated the engine room and two crew members are nonetheless lacking, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday.
The ship, in-built 2009, was managed by Oboronlogistika, an organization that’s a part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s army development operations, which had beforehand stated it was en path to the Russian Far Eastern port of Vladivostok, with two big harbor cranes connected to his ship. bridge.
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The Foreign Ministry’s disaster middle stated in a press release that 14 of the ship’s 16 crew members had been rescued and brought to Spain, however that two have been nonetheless lacking. It is just not specified what prompted the engine room explosion.
The Russian embassy in Spain was investigating the circumstances of the sinking and was in touch with Spanish authorities, quoted by state information company RIA.
Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, an organization listed by LSEG as a part of the group and the direct proprietor and operator of the vessel, declined to touch upon the sinking. Both entities have been sanctioned by the United States in 2022 for his or her ties to the Russian army, as was Ursa Major itself.
Unverified video footage of the vessel itemizing closely on its starboard facet with its bow a lot decrease within the water than standard was filmed on December 23 by a passing ship and revealed Tuesday on the Russian information website life.ru.
Spain’s maritime rescue service stated it acquired a misery sign from Ursa Major on Monday when it was about 57 miles off the coast of Almeira.
He stated he contacted a close-by vessel that had reported extreme climate, a lifeboat within the water, and stated the Big Dipper was itemizing to starboard.
Two ships and a helicopter have been despatched to the scene and the 14 surviving crew members have been taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena.
The crew stated the vessel was carrying empty containers and two port cranes on deck.
A Russian warship would then arrive on the scene and take over the rescue operations.
SINKING
Oboronlogistika, the vessel’s final proprietor, stated in a Dec. 20 assertion that the vessel, which in keeping with LSEG knowledge was beforehand referred to as Sparta III amongst different names, was carrying specialised harbor cranes that have been to be put in within the port of Vladivostok, in addition to components for brand spanking new icebreakers.
In the unverified footage, two big cranes might be seen tied to the bridge.
LSEG vessel monitoring knowledge exhibits that the vessel departed the Russian port of St. Petersburg on December 11 and was final seen sending a sign at 22:04 GMT on Monday between Algeria and Spain, the place she sank.
On leaving St. Petersburg he had indicated that his subsequent port of name was the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian port of Tartous the place he had referred to as prior to now.
Separately, Ukraine’s army intelligence service HUR – which tracks the actions of Russian ships – stated in a submit on its official Telegram channel on Monday that one other Russian service provider ship, referred to as Sparta, had briefly skilled technical issues off the coast of Portugal.
HUR stated in an replace that the Sparta’s crew had nonetheless resolved the issue and that the vessel was en path to Syria to gather army tools and ammunition following the autumn of shut Russian ally Bashar al-Assad.
Reuters was unable to confirm HUR’s claims about Sparta’s vacation spot or mission.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Gleb Stolyarov; Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo in Madrid and Max Hunder; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Tomasz Janowski)