The cause of Monday’s sinking of the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major in the Mediterranean Sea was a targeted terrorist attack. The RIA Novosti agency reported on this on Wednesday, referring to the opinion of the ship’s owner, the company Oboronlogistika, which belongs to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
According to Oboronlogistika, crew members claim that on December 23 at 11:50 a.m. CET there were three consecutive explosions on the starboard side of the ship in the stern area. The vessel then tilted 25 degrees to starboard.
The Ursa Major vessel was not overloaded, emphasized Oboronlogistika. From St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, the ship was carrying cargo weighing 806 tons, which also included two port cranes and 129 empty containers. Oboronlogistika also states in the opinion, that the Ursa Major is one of the largest dry cargo ships in Russia and its maximum carrying capacity is 9500 tons. It was built in 2009.
The ship sank in the Mediterranean Sea in international waters approximately 124 kilometers from the Spanish coast and 45 kilometers from the Algerian coast. 14 crew members were rescued and taken to the port of Cartagena, two are registered as missing.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced on Tuesday that began an investigation into a possible violation of “safety regulations” in maritime transport. Russian media said the Ursa Major was a supply vessel for Russian troops in Syria, which have two bases there.
In 2022, the United States imposed sanctions on Oboronlogistika and its ships, including the Ursa Major, for transporting cargo to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimeawrites the AFP agency.
The Ursa Major was in the western Mediterranean at the same time as the Sparta, another US-sanctioned Russian cargo ship, which was bound for the Egyptian port city of Port Said, according to the ship-tracking site MarineTraffic.com, cited by the AP.
