By Andrew Osborn and Gleb Stolyarov

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian cargo ship called the Ursa Major sank in the Mediterranean Sea overnight after an explosion destroyed its engine room and left two of its crew members missing, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. on Tuesday.

The ship, built in 2009, is controlled by Oboronlogistika, a company part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s military construction operations, which previously said it was bound for Russia’s far eastern port of Vladivostok with two giant cranes on the docks beaten by his. deck.

The Foreign Ministry’s crisis center said in a statement that 14 of the ship’s 16 crew members had been rescued and taken to Spain, but two were still missing. It did not say what caused the engine room explosion.

The Russian embassy in Spain was quoted by the state RIA news agency as saying it was looking into the circumstances of the sinking and was in contact with Spanish authorities.

Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, a company listed by LSEG as part of the group and the direct owner and operator of the ship, declined to comment on the sinking. Both entities are subject to US sanctions in 2022 due to their military ties to Russia as is Ursa Major itself.

Unverified video footage of the ship listing on its starboard side with its bow lower than usual was taken on December 23 by a passing ship and published by Russia’s life.ru news outlet on Tuesday .

Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said it received a distress signal from Ursa Major on Monday when it was located about 57 miles off the coast of Almeira.

It said it contacted a vessel nearby reporting bad weather conditions, a lifeboat in the water, and said the Ursa Major was listing on the starboard side.

Two ships and a helicopter were dispatched to the scene and the 14 remaining crew members were taken to the port of Cartagena in Spain.

It quoted the crew as saying the vessel was carrying empty containers as well as two port cranes on deck.

A Russian warship later arrived on the scene, it said, and was conducting rescue operations.

DESCENT

Oboronlogistika, the last owner of the ship, said in a statement on December 20 that the ship, which LSEG data showed was previously called Sparta III among other names, was carrying special port cranes because will be installed in the port of Vladivostok as well as parts for new ice-breakers.

Two giant cranes can be seen tied to the deck in unverified video footage.

LSEG ship tracking data shows that the vessel departed from the Russian port of St. Petersburg on December 11 and was last seen sending a signal at 2204 GMT on Monday between Algeria and Spain where it sank.

Upon leaving St. Petersburg it indicated that its next port of call would be the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian port of Tartous it had previously called.

In fact, Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service – which tracks the Russian ship’s movements – said in a post on its official Telegram channel on Monday that a separate Russian cargo ship, called Sparta, temporarily encountered technical problems off the coast of Portugal.

HUR said in an update that the crew of the Sparta had fixed the problem and that the ship was on its way to Syria to collect military equipment and ammunition after the fall of Russia’s close ally Bashar al -Assad.

Reuters could not verify HUR’s statements about Sparta’s destination or mission.