Moscow. December 25th. INTERFAX - The Oboronlogistics company believes that a terrorist act was committed against the Ursa Major vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, refuting media reports about overloading.
"Oboronlogistics LLC believes that on December 23, 2024, a targeted terrorist attack was carried out on the Ursa Major ship owned by the company," the Oboronlogistics press service said.
"On December 22, 2024, from 13:10 (Moscow time), the Ursa Major vessel was adrift in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain, awaiting an improvement in the weather en route, while the main engines were stopped and the ship was powered by an auxiliary engine," the report says.
"According to the testimony of the ship's crew, on December 23, 2024, at 13:50 (Moscow time), three consecutive explosions occurred from the starboard side in the aft area, after which the ship received a sharp roll to starboard to 25 degrees, which indicated the flow of water into the ship's rooms," the company said.
The report says that the Ursa Major vessel, one of the largest dry cargo ships in Russia (with a maximum cargo capacity of 9,5 thousand tons), was sailing from the Large Port of St. Petersburg to the port of Vladivostok with a design cargo weighing 806 tons.
According to Oboronlogistics, there were two gantry cranes on board with a total weight of 686 tons, two crane buckets with a total weight of 27 tons, two ship's bilge covers with a total weight of 91 tons, one 20-foot container with a 2-ton lid closure and 129 empty containers.
"Thus, the version voiced by a number of media outlets about the alleged "overloading" of the vessel is not true and damages the reputation of Oboronlogistics LLC," the report says.
On Tuesday, the Western Interregional Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Transport reported that investigators had opened a criminal case into violations of traffic safety and operation rules for water transport after a Russian cargo ship sank in the Mediterranean Sea.
Earlier, the situation and crisis center of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that the Ursa Major cargo ship sank in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea after an explosion in the engine room, and two Russian citizens were missing. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, there were 16 crew members on board, citizens of the Russian Federation, of whom 14 people were rescued and taken by the rescue service to the port of Cartagena, two were missing. The owner of the bulk carrier, according to the agency, is SK-YUG LLC.
Ursa Major is a universal cargo ship of the ro-ro/lo-lo class (horizontal and vertical loading), designed for the transportation of goods of various classes: general cargo (including oversized), containers, and rolling equipment (cars, euro trucks, etc.).
The cargo hold of the vessel can accommodate packaged goods, machinery, containers, and other equipment weighing up to 1.2 thousand tons. The cargo deck accommodates up to 120 units of rolling, wheeled or tracked vehicles. The open deck accommodates more than 405 twenty-foot containers in five tiers.
The vessel was built in 2009 and is equipped with two cranes with a lifting capacity of 350 tons each, which positions it as a heavy lift cargo vessel. It developed a speed of 14 knots. The length of the vessel is 142 m, width - 23 m, draft - 7 m.
According to the company's official website, the main tasks of Oboronlogistics LLC are to meet the needs of the Russian Ministry of Defense in the field of transportation, storage and production of military and special-purpose products.
