Russian Military Sealift Ship Sinks After Engine Room Explosion

On Monday, a sanctioned Russian cargo ship sustained an engine room explosion off Spain and sank, leaving two crewmembers missing. 

At about 1230 hours local time, the Ursa Major was under way eastbound in the Strait of Gibraltar when she sustained an explosion in the engine room. She slowed and deviated from course, then began to list. 

AIS data shows that a Spanish Navy warship, the Spanish response vessel Clara Campoamor and a good Samaritan vessel - the Sparta, another sanctioned Russian cargo ship - came to the aid of the crew. 14 seafarers were rescued and two remained missing as of late Monday. 

Ursa Major was operated by a subsidiary of sanctioned Russian defense company Oboronlogistika. She was a mainstay of the Russian supply route to Tartus, Syria, the Russian Navy's longtime base in the Eastern Mediterranean. The U.S. Treasury included the heavy lift vessel in a package of Ukraine-related sanctions in May 2022.  

After the Ursa Major's sinking, Sparta resumed her eastward journey at low speed, making six knots and declaring her destination as Port Said, Egypt.

Potential sealift role

The voyage of Sparta and Ursa Major comes at a unique moment for Russian operations in the Mediterranean. With the collapse of the Russian-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia's tenure at Tartus looks tenuous, and Moscow is reportedly negotiating with the leadership of militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham over the future of Russian forces in Syria. According to the Institute for the Study of War, as of Monday, Russian soldiers have fully withdrawn from their forward bases in Syria's interior and are now concentrated at Tartus and the nearby air base at Hmeimim, both on the coastline. "It remains unclear whether Russia will withdraw from coastal Syria," ISW assessed, noting reports that negotiations between Moscow and the new regime are ongoing.

Photos taken of Ursa Major earlier in her voyage showed that she was carrying two large crawler cranes as deck cargo. This heavy lifting equipment prompted speculation in the open-source intelligence community that she may have been headed to provide support for the removal of Russian heavy equipment from Tartus - the same equipment she delivered over the course of many years. Her declared destination on AIS was Vladivostok, and her master told local media that her holds were empty.