and which apparently was transporting components for a nuclear propellant for submarines to North Korea, could have been attacked with torpedoes or mines, according to CNN, citing sources from the Spanish investigation.
According to these sources, the starboard side of the cargo ship could have been hit by a torpedo, while other experts consulted by CNN assure that the explosions suffered by the ship could have been caused by a limpet mine.
In any case, these conclusions would point to a military operation that sought to prevent the transfer of key nuclear technology to Pyongyang by Moscow.
“[Esta acción] “could mark an unusual and high-risk intervention by a Western military to prevent Russia from sending an improvement in its nuclear technology to a key ally, North Korea,” the outlet notes without providing further evidence. The US network thus suggests that the Ursa Major It may have been sunk by a Western country just months after North Korean forces came to Russia’s support in its war against Ukraine.
According to Spanish authorities, on December 23, 2024, an explosion occurred in the engine room of the Ursa Major. The company that owns the ship, the Russian state company Oboronlogistics, stated shortly after the events that it had been the target “of a selective terrorist attack.”
The incident occurred at a time of great tension in the Ukrainian war. The Biden Administration was about to take over from Donald Trump, kyiv forces had launched a surprise offensive with which they took part of the Russian Kursk region, and the North Korean dictatorship sent troops to Vladimir Putin in exchange for assistance in its nuclear technology, including the design of submarines.
After sinking, the wreck has been closely monitored ever since by planes and ships from both the United States and Russia. According to one of the Spanish sources mentioned by CNN, four more explosions occurred at the site while a Russian ship was inspecting the site.
The last journey of Ursa Major began on December 11, 2024. Also known as Sparta 3the ship had assisted the Russian army in its campaign in the Syrian war. The ship was identified by a Portuguese plane in the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, near Saint Petersburg, from where it officially left for Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia, with two large lids, 129 containers and two huge cranes.
However, two months earlier Oboronlogistics had declared that the ship had a license to transport nuclear material. A fast-motion video analyzed by CNN suggests that this was the real charge.
After circumnavigating the European coast escorted by Russian military vessels and closely watched by NATO ships, the Ursa Major It arrived in Spanish waters on December 22. That morning he drastically reduced his speed, prompting the Spanish authorities to inquire about his situation. According to its occupants, everything was going well. About 24 hours later it diverted its course and launched a distress call between explosions.
According to another CNN source, the ship did not appear to be damaged enough to sink. A Spanish rescue ship approached the ship, but one of the Russian military ships escorting it, the Ivan Gren, He ordered the Spanish ship to stay more than three kilometers away, although he later asked it to return to rescue the crew. Five days after the shipwreck, more explosions were detected.
According to a recent parliamentary response from the Spanish Government, that that day, Maritime Rescue rescued the crew of the Ursa Major which ended up sinking the ship.
Neither the Pentagon, nor Oboronlogistics nor the Spanish, Russian and British armed forces have commented to CNN about their investigation. Other Western intelligence sources suggested to the channel that the conclusions of the Spanish investigation “were far-fetched” without offering a plausible alternative regarding the ship’s initial explosions or Russian secrecy.
The captain of the ship, at the insistence of the Spanish authorities to clarify what exactly were two “well covers” reflected in the cargo manifest, “finally confessed that they were the components of two nuclear reactors similar to those used by submarines,” according to the Government’s letter dated February 23. According to the sailor, the components “did not carry nuclear fuel.”
CNN in turn cites Oboronlogistics, which justifies its claim that the explosion was due to a terrorist attack by stating that “a 50 by 50 centimeter hole was found in the hull of the boat, with the damaged metal facing inward” and that the deck of the boat “was strewn with shrapnel.”
“Well covers”
He Ursa Major He left Saint Petersburg with his manifesto stating that his destination was Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East. However, the source of the Spanish investigation assured CNN that the captain, named Igor Anisimov, stated that the plan was to divert the ship to the North Korean port of Rason, 80 nautical miles south of , to deliver the components.
It is believed that the “well covers” could be the so-called biological shields that seal the nuclear reactor of an atomic propulsion system for submarines, and that they could still emit some volume of radiation if these covers were removed from dismantled Russian submersibles.
Spanish sources also told CNN that, a week after the sinking, the Yantar —a Russian research vessel that has been accused of espionage—remained over the wreckage of the Ursa Major for five days before four other explosions were detected that supposedly sought to eliminate remains of the sunken ship on the seabed.
In turn, the network states that the US Armed Forces sent a WC-135, a special plane for detecting radiation remains in the air, to fly over the area of the sinking twice.
The sinking of Ursa Major in 2024 came shortly after North Korea for the first time sent thousands of soldiers to support Moscow in the Ukraine war, a gesture that even then was believed Russia could reward by transferring critical military technologies to Pyongyang.
In December of last year, the North Korean regime presented at its Sinpo development center (180 miles south of Rason) the hull of what it claims will be its first nuclear-powered submersible, a type of technology that would allow it to maintain significant control over its territorial waters and strengthen its military posture around the Korean Peninsula.
