Russian ship explodes near Spain. It would be Putin’s secret mission

Two crew members are missing after an explosion in the freighter’s engine room. 14 people were evacuated to Spanish port.

One explosion in the engine room sank the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major in the Mediterranean Sea, between Spain and Algeria, and two of its 16 crew are missingthe Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Tuesday, cited by . The remaining 14 crew were evacuated to a

According to , the ship was part of a secret mission of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The purpose of the ship’s trip is unclear, but Ukrainian and Spanish intelligence sources suggest to the agency that the vessel was headed to Syria to remove equipment from that countryfollowing the recent fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

LSEG ship tracking data shows that the ship departed from the Russian port of Saint Petersburg on December 11 and was last seen sending a signal at 12:04 pm on Monday between Algeria and Spain.

Unverified video footage of the ship listing heavily to starboard, with its bow much lower in the water than normal, was filmed on Monday by a passing ship and posted on social media.

A vessel, built in 2009, was controlled by Oboronlogistikaa company that is part of the Russian Ministry of Defense’s military construction operations. The Ministry had said the ship was on its way to the port of Vladivostok in Russia’s far east, with two giant port cranes tied to the deck. There have been no statements yet about the causes of the explosion.