The Russian cargo ship, Ursa Major, had been the target in a “terrorist act”, claimed Oboronlogistika, a company that is part of the Russian Defense Ministry's military construction operations.
The ship ran into trouble on Monday (December 23) in the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Algeria and later sank, with two of its 16 crew still missing, according to Russia's Foreign Ministry.
The vessel's owner has said that the ship was rocked by three explosions that ripped through its engine room, state news agency RIA quoted the vessel's owner as saying on December 25.
It cited Oboronlogistika as saying that the ship's surviving 14 crew members had reported that three consecutive explosions on the ship's starboard side had detonated at 13:50 Moscow time (10:50 GMT) near the vessel's stern on 23 December.
The ship, built in 2009, then began to list sharply as it was obviously taking in water. The ship was not overloaded, it added.
It was carrying two giant port cranes on its deck with their loading buckets, two heavy hatch covers for ice-breaking vessels, 129 empty containers, and a 20-foot container with roofing equipment, RIA said.
Oboronlogistika had said that the ship had been en route to the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok.
Spain's Maritime Rescue Service said it had received a distress signal from the Ursa Major on Monday when it was located about 57 miles off the coast of Almeira.
Two vessels and a helicopter had been sent to the scene and the 14 surviving crew members taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena.
LSEG ship tracking data shows the vessel departed from the Russian port of St. Petersburg on 11 December and was last seen sending a signal at 22:04 GMT on Monday between Algeria and Spain where it sank.
On leaving St. Petersburg, it had indicated that its next port of call was the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian port of Tartus which it had called at in the past.
Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, a company LSEG lists as part of the group and the ship's direct owner and operator, declined to comment on the sinking at the time. Both entities were placed under sanctions by the United States in 2022 for their ties to Russia's military as was the Ursa Major itself.
The Ursa Major was one of five Russian cargo vessels, including three large military landing ships and two freighters, that recently entered the Mediterranean Sea.
Analysts suggest that the fleet was tasked with evacuating military equipment and weapons from Russia's bases in Tartus and Khmeimim, Syria, which has recently seen the end of Bashar Al-Assad's five-decade long rule.