MADRID: A US-sanctioned Russian cargo ship that sank within the Mediterranean Sea in 2024 was carrying “nuclear reactor elements” much like these utilized in nuclear submarines, in keeping with a Spanish authorities letter, shedding some gentle on the thriller.
The Ursa Main, owned by an organization that belongs to the Russian defence ministry, sank in worldwide waters off southern Spain in December 2024 with 16 individuals on board – two of whom had been by no means discovered.
The captain lastly “confessed” that the ship was transporting “elements of two nuclear reactors much like these utilized by submarines”, reads a authorities letter to parliament dated February 23 and seen by AFP on Wednesday (Might 12).
The captain stated the reactors “weren’t carrying nuclear gasoline”, however this info couldn’t be verified, added the letter, cited in a CNN article printed on Tuesday.
In response to the US outlet and regional Spanish each day La Verdad de Murcia, the ship might have been sunk in a Western operation as a result of it was taking nuclear reactors to North Korea.
Its proprietor denounced on the time “a focused terrorist assault”, with out offering proof.
The vessel’s official route was from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East.
Questioned by AFP in January, Spanish official Oscar Villar, in control of investigations on the time, declined to substantiate the CNN and La Verdad de Murcia articles, which stated they consulted a Spanish investigative report.
Spain’s seismology institute had instructed AFP it had recorded “4 seismic indicators” close to the southeastern coastal metropolis of Cartagena on the day of the sinking.
These had been much like explosions “in quarries to extract building materials, or these carried out by army divers of their anti-mine drills”.
The USA in 2022 imposed sanctions on the Ursa Main for offering “transportation providers … for the supply of cargo to Russian-occupied Crimea”.
