In the Spanish Navy they have received with total skepticism the information that has emerged this Wednesday that speculates with a torpedo attack as the cause of the sinking of the Russian freighter Ursa Major in waters near the Murcian coast on December 23, 2024.
Navy sources call it “99% uncertain speculation” that it was a torpedo that sank the Russian ship, and they also rule out other possible sabotage formulassuch as attacking with a nautical drone or placing a sticky bomb on the hull.
The Ursa Major had set sail from St. Petersburg, in Baltic Russia, bound for Novosibirsk, in Asian Russia, with a cargo that included elements for submarine nuclear reactors. “It did not appear by surprise in waters of interest to Spain -certifies a senior Navy officer-. “The ship had been monitored mile by mile by NATO navies since it set sail.”
This military officer also denies that it was Portuguese ships and aircraft that located the ship in waters of interest to Spain. The ship was constantly being monitored by COVAMMaritime Surveillance Operations Center, which has its main headquarters in Cartagena, asserts this official Spanish source.
Not even a torpedo…
The Ursa Major went to the bottom of the Mediterranean on the night of December 23, 2024, at 11:20 p.m.at a sea point 62 miles from Cartagena and 39 from the Algerian coast, according to the finding made by the ship Navy patrol boat P-71 Serviolapresent in the area of the accident.
Hours earlier, according to information collected by the Government, the pilot of the Ursa Major had launched a distress call at 12:53. When he did, It had 16 people on board. Later, only 14 would be rescued. Two crew members did not return to land.
“A torpedo never has the effect described in these supposed investigations,” says one of the military sources consulted by this newspaper, a veteran officer of the Spanish submarine weapon. “Torpedoes no longer impact ships. They detonate when they are under the keel, generally due to magnetic influence, and split the target in two,” explains an admiral with experience in the same branch of the Navy. A report of the Russian company Oboron Logistics, owner of the Ursa Majorpoints out that the ship had a hole half a meter square with the edges facing inwards. “A torpedo does not impact the hull of its target, but explodes underneath or nearby, generating a wave that lifts the ship, breaks it or makes it explode. And with a tremendous explosion, with a lot of fire and smoke…”, states the source mentioned first.
None of that could be seen on the stricken ship. The first witnesses to reach it agree in confirming that “it had a significant list and the entry of water from the stern.” The quotation marks are from the report that the Government delivered to Congress on February 23 in response to a parliamentary question about the event.
… in dron, in lapa
The Navy sources consulted by this newspaper maintain the thesis that they have been considering for a year: explosion in the ship’s engine room without malicious causethat is, caused by something that the freighter had on board.
The Spanish military rules out the action of a underwater drone. “They don’t launch at 60 miles from the coast,” they assert. There were also no nearby ships from which that drone could be launched.
Paragraphs of the report on the sinking of the Ursa Major submitted by the Government to Congress / The Newspaper
These soldiers also rule out the thesis of an explosive attached to the helmet, a sticky bomb. “It is impossible to place that bomb on a ship that is moving at 16 or 17 knots,” the same sources explain.
Official information
Seven official research notes and reports bring together the data known to the authorities Spanish:
– The testimony of the crew members of the Helimer 205 helicopter rescue team, the first of all the rescue resources to reach the area.
– The report of the maritime rescue and safety service SASEMARwhich sent a tugboat, the BS Clara Campoamor, and a fast rescue boat, the ES Salvador Draco.
– The testimony of the crew of the Swedish merchant Oslo Carrier. It was the first ship to arrive in the area, due to its proximity to the path taken by the Ursa Major. Oslo saw 14 crew members of the Russian ship in a boat that they had launched after evacuating the bard, and saved them by hoisting them on board.
– The report of the P-71 Serviola patrol boat, which the Navy sent by order of the admiral of Maritime Action within a mission of surveillance, presence and deterrenceand also in support of Clara Campoamor arriving at the place at 7:27 p.m.
– The report of the judicial police officers of the Civil Guard in Cartagenain charge, as required, of taking statements from the castaways.
– The testimony of captain of the Ursa Major before the Maritime Captain of Cartagena on the same day of the shipwreck
– The summary sent by the Government to Congress of Deputies on February 23rd.
From all these reports, Navy sources indicate, a story of events emerges in which three details stand out: one, that the crew members speak, upon being rescued, of an explosion in the engine room; two, that there is no reference to signs of attack in the Maritime Rescue report; and three: an allusion to the manifesto of ship’s cargo, which contained a euphemism.
The Ursa Major, a 142 meter long cargo ship, was carrying 129 maritime containers of 12 meters each, two Liebher port cranes, two stowage clamps and two “well covers”.
By the latter he refers to two large metal pieces that, in a second statement before the maritime captain of Cartagena, were described by the captain of the cargo ship as nuclear reactor components of those that power certain types of submarines. In a first speculation from Spanish military sources, it was maintained, a few days after the sinking, that what the cargo ship was carrying was a pair of hatches for reactors of nuclear-powered ships.
marauding ship
There was a rescue specialist who descended from the Spanish helicopter on the inclined deck of the Ursa Major, but he went with the “objective of locating the two missing crew members, not inspecting the cargo”says the Government’s response.
The Russian ship Yantar, initially declared a scientific research vessel but noted for its mapping of western cables, spent several days at the point where the Ursa Major sank. / VF
From all these reports, Navy sources indicate, a story of events emerges in which three details stand out: one, that the crew members speak, upon being rescued, of an explosion in the engine room; two, that there is no reference to signs of attack in the Maritime Rescue report; and three: an allusion to the manifesto of ship’s cargo, which contained a euphemism.
The Ursa Major, a 142 meter long cargo ship, was carrying 129 maritime containers of 12 meters each, two Liebher port cranes, two stowage clamps and two “well covers”.
By the latter he refers to two large metal pieces that, in a second statement before the maritime captain of Cartagena, were described by the captain of the cargo ship as nuclear reactor components of those that power certain types of submarines. In a first speculation from Spanish military sources, it was maintained, a few days after the sinking, that what the cargo ship was carrying was a pair of hatches for reactors of nuclear-powered ships.
Kremlin rescue attempt
There was a rescue specialist who descended from the Spanish helicopter on the inclined deck of the Ursa Major, but he went with the “objective of locating the two missing crew members, not inspecting the cargo”says the Government’s response.
The sources consulted in the Navy confirm that, after the accident, the Russian ship Yantar, a ship initially declared as a scientific prospecting shipwas sailing “several days” in the waters where the cargo ship sank.
The Yantar has experience in looking at the bottom of the sea. It has on board two bathyscaphes capable of operating at up to 6,000 meters deep, as reported by the Russian agency Sputnik, when the Kremlin sent this ship to collaborate in the rescue attempt of the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan. The seabed where the Russian ship ended up is, according to the Spanish Government report, “about 2,500 meters” deep.
In the same way that the Ursa Major is described by Navy sources as a ship of the Russian ghost supply fleet, the Yantar is indicated by these same sources as an old acquaintance of the NATO navies, for being dedicated to map underwater infrastructure – especially communications cables – of Western countries. The last official reference to his position is from 192 days ago. Russian ships sometimes turn off their AIS system to avoid declaring their location. Then, he was sailing in the busy Baltic Sea channel that separates Estonia from Sweden.
Subscribe to continue reading
