Moscow:
A “terrorist act” sank the cargo ship that sank in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea this week, the Russian state-owned company that owns the vessel said on Wednesday.
The Oboronlogistika company said it “believes that a targeted terrorist attack was committed against the Big Dipper on December 23, 2024,” it said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, without specifying who might have been behind the act or Why.
The ship sank in international waters off the coast of Spain in the early hours of Tuesday after sending a distress call for help on Monday.
“Three successive explosions” occurred on the ship before it began taking on water, the company, which is owned by the Russian Defense Ministry, said.
Oboronlogistika did not say what evidence it had to conclude that a terrorist attack sank the Ursa Major.
The Russian Foreign Ministry's crisis unit told Telegram on Tuesday that the ship sank “after an explosion in the engine room.”
It added that of the 16 Russian crew on board, 14 had been rescued and taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena and two were missing.
The ship sent a distress call from the coast of southeastern Spain in bad weather on Monday morning, reporting that the vessel was underway and that sailors had launched a rescue boat, Spain's maritime rescue service said in a statement.
Spain sent a helicopter and rescue boats and brought the survivors to port, the agency said.
A Russian warship then arrived and took charge of the rescue operation as the ship was between Spanish and Algerian waters, after which the Ursa Major sank overnight.
The Ursa Major is listed on MarineTraffic.com as a 124.7 meter general cargo ship
It is owned by a subsidiary of Russia's Oboronlogistika, which is owned by the Defense Ministry and also provides civilian transport and logistics, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Ursa Major was en route from the Russian city of Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East.
Last week, Oboronlogistika issued a press release with photos of the ship in port, stating that it would carry a particularly large and heavy cargo: cranes of 380 tons each and icebreaker hatches of 45 tons each to Vladivostok.
The United States imposed sanctions on Oboronlogistika and ships, including the Ursa Major, in 2022 for providing “transportation services… for the delivery of cargo to Russian-occupied Crimea.”
This means that any US organization that does business with the company or its ships risks sanctions.
Ukraine's GUR military intelligence said the Ursa Major was also used to supply Russian troops in Syria, where Moscow has a naval base in Tartus.
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