The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major in Portuguese waters in December 2024
Tuesday’s Coverage: EU Sanctions Russians Who Abducted Ukrainian Children
A Russian cargo ship, beset by mysterious explosions, that sank off the southeast coast of Spain in December 2024 may have been carrying nuclear submarine reactors for North Korea, officials say.
The 142 meter-long Ursa Major, owned by the State-linked Oboronlogistics company, was supposedly sailing from St Petersburg to Vladivostok in the far east of Russia when it sank 62 nautical miles off the coast of Murcia at 11:20 p.m. on December 23, 2024.
The ship had put out a distress call 11 hours earlier, prompted Spain’s dispath of a helicopter, a fast rescue boat, and a tugboat. Crew were abandoning the badly-listing vessel after three explosions in the engine room. A 50cm by 50cm hole was later found in the vessel’s hull, with the damaged metal facing inwards, indicating a strike by a super-fast, supercavitating torpedo — believed to be held only by the US, Russia, and Iran.
A Russian warship arrived at 8:07 p.m. and took over the rescue operations, ordering the two Spanish boats to withdraw two nautical miles. The warship launched flares, possibly to blind the infrared sensors of intelligence satellites monitoring the incident.
Just after the flares were fired, “four similar seismic signatures…the pattern of which resembled underwater mines or overground quarry blasts” were heard.
The Ursa Major sank within three hours to a depth of 2,500 meters. Two crew were killed in the initial explosions, while 14 were rescued.
The vessel was officially transporting “non-dangerous merchandise”, including 129 shipping containers, two cranes, and two large maintenance hole covers. However, the captain told Spanish investigators that the “manhole covers” were “nuclear reactor components similar to those used by submarines”, although no nuclear fuel was being transported.
Investigators noticed two huge blue containers, each estimated to weigh about 65 tons, on the ship’s stern in satellite photographs. Noting that the loads would be almost impossible to transport by road between ports used by the Ursa Major, they assessed that this might have prompted the voyage of more than 15,000 km (9,320 miles) by sea between St Petersburg and Vladivostok.
A “source familiar with the investigation” said Russian captain believed he would be diverted to the North Korean port of Rason to deliver the two reactors.
Russia has reportedly provided military and nuclear assistance, among billions of dollars in aid, in return for North Korea’s provision of around 20,000 troops, missiles, and millions of artillery shells for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
