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The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that a Russian cargo ship subject to US sanctions sank in the Mediterranean Sea overnight after an explosion in the engine room.
Two Ursa Major crew members are still missing after 14 people were rescued and flown to Spain on Tuesday morning after the explosion.
Video footage showed the 466-foot ship swaying violently with its stern much lower in the water as it passed between Spain and Algeria.
Boat operator Oboronlogicika – which was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 for its ties to the Russian military – previously said it was en route to the Russian port of Vladivostok carrying cranes.
However, the company did not comment on the explosion. The Russian Foreign Ministry did not mention the cause of the explosion in the engine room.
The Russian Information Agency quoted the Russian Embassy in Spain as saying that it was looking into the circumstances of the ship sinking and that it was in contact with the authorities in Spain.
The ship left St. Petersburg on December 11 and was last seen sending a signal around 10pm on Monday between Algeria and Spain, where it sank, according to ship tracking data.
The ship was in the same area of the Mediterranean as another sanctioned Russian ship, the Sparta, when it ran into trouble. The two ships were spotted heading across the English Channel last week, reportedly under escort.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian military intelligence reported that Sparta was heading to the Russian naval base on the Syrian coast in Tartus to transport military equipment out of Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
A Kremlin official said on Monday that Russia is in contact with Syria’s new rulers regarding the future of two military facilities at the diplomatic and military levels.
Oboronlogicika, owner of Ursa Major, has previously been heavily involved in transporting goods to Tartus.
The Syrian bases and the port of Tartus have become crucial to Moscow’s operations in the Mediterranean and Africa, and Assad’s fall has left the Kremlin with a severe logistical headache.
Russian operations in countries such as Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso relied heavily on the port and on the Hmeimim air base as a way station and refueling station.
