Ursa Major, the Russian weapons ship bound for Syria sank

The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major headed to Syria to evacuate Moscow's forces sank on Monday in international waters between Spain and Algeria. Il cargo specialized in the transport of military vehicles would have sunk after an explosion in the engine room. Fourteen crew members were rescued by the Madrid Coast Guard and transported to the port of Cartagena on Monday night. Two sailors are missing.

A The crisis unit of the Russian Foreign Ministry is confirming the sinking which specifies that the sinking occurred “after an explosion in the engine room”. The press release cited by Tass specifies: «The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major, owned by the SK-Yug companysank in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea after an explosion in the engine room. Fourteen of the 16 crew members (all Russian citizens) were rescued and taken to the port of Cartagena in the Spanish region of Murcia by the rescue service.” The other two crew members, however, are missing.

Mondayaround 12.30, the alarm went off aboard the Ursa Major. THEhe ship was supposed to reach the Syrian port of Tartus to take away men and vehicles of the Moscow contingent deployed until two weeks ago in defense of Bashar Assad's regime.

Numerous merchant ships and fishing boats as well as two Spanish lookouts responded to the cargo's SOS, rescuing the crew. Then a military ship from Moscow would have intervened in the area to manage the emergency.

Launched in 2009 at Ursa Major it was 142 meters long and had a very large hold, in the last two years it often moved between St. Petersburg and the Mediterranean to transfer combat systems to Moscow's alliesincluding tanks and self-propelled missile batteries.

The journeys almost always took place under the close escort of military units, in fear of Ukrainian incursions or international controls on the nature of the cargo. In fact, the United States had sanctioned it for these shipments in violation of the embargo. This time, however, she set sail quickly on December 11, three days after the fall of Damascusto repatriate the Russian forces present in Syria or transfer them to Libya.