Two crew members from the Ursa Major are missing and 14 were rescued and transported to Spain following the explosion just after midday on Monday, the Russian defence ministry said.
Unverified video footage filmed by a passing ship appeared to show the Ursa Major listing heavily to its starboard side, with the stern much lower in the water than usual.
It had left the port of St Petersburg on 11 December, according to tracking data, and was last seen sending a signal just after 10pm on Monday between Algeria and Spain.
Analysts have suggested that the ships could be part of a mission to evacuate Russian troops and military equipment from Syria, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Survivors of the Ursa Major on the deck of a Spanish Maritime Rescue ship at the port of Cartagena (Photo: Jose Maria Rodriguez T/Reuters)Another one of Oboronlogistika’s cargo vessels, Sparta, is among the Russian vessels currently in the Mediterranean.
Until 2022, both Ursa Major and Sparta were used for the so-called “Syria Express” route, transporting Russian arms to Assad via the Moscow-controlled port of Tartus in the Mediterranean.
The Ursa Major in the Bosphorus last year (Photo: Yoruk Isik/File Photo/Reuters)On Monday, Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service said that Sparta had broken down en route to Tartus.
Earlier this year, Timur Ivanov, a former Russian deputy defence minister with close ties to Oboronlogistika, was arrested on charges of bribery.
He was a close associate of Sergei Shoigu, whom President Vladimir Putin replaced as defence minister in May.
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