- A Russian-flagged cargo vessel has sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, per Russia’s foreign ministry.
- The Ursa Major ship went down after an explosion in the engine room, the ministry said.
- It comes after Ukraine said Moscow had sent four ships to Russian military bases in Syria.
A Russian-flagged cargo vessel has sunk in the Mediterranean Sea after an explosion in its engine room, Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Fourteen crew members were rescued, but two were missing, the ministry’s situation and crisis unit said in a Telegram post.
The ministry said the vessel, the Ursa Major, was owned by SK-YUG LLC, a Russian shipping company also known as SC South that has been sanctioned by the US.
Spain’s Maritime Rescue agency told Business Insider that it had received a distress alert call from the Ursa Major last night.
It said the ship was 57 nautical miles off the coast of Almeria in southern Spain in bad weather conditions. This prompted the maritime rescue centers of Almeria, Cartagena, and Madrid to coordinate a rescue effort, it added.
The 14 people rescued were transferred to the Spanish port city of Cartagena, the agency said, adding that another Russian ship later arrived in the area and took over the rescue operations.
Ship tracking data said the 466-foot Ursa Major, built in 2009, last departed from St. Petersburg on December 11.
It comes after Ukraine’s intelligence directorate reported on Monday that a Russian cargo ship called Sparta had broken down near Portugal after the engine failed.
The GUR said the ship had been sent to evacuate Russian weapons and equipment from Syria.
The crew was able to fix the vessel, and it continued on through the Strait of Gibraltar, the GUR said.
It remains unclear whether the Sparta and the Ursa Major are the same ship. Maritime tracking data shows that the Ursa Major was previously named Sparta III.
Moscow has operated two military facilities in Syria, the Hmeimin airbase and the Tartus naval base. Both have been crucial for projecting Russia’s influence across the Middle East and Africa.
The fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad earlier this month has called the future of the bases into question.
Ukraine’s GUR said earlier this month that Russia had deployed four ships to help evacuate equipment in Syria, including ships named the Sparta and Sparta II.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
