Russian Cargo Ship Sinks in Mediterranean with 2 Crew Missing

A fisherman casts his fishing line into the Mediterranean Sea from a rocky area along the Beirut coastline on a sweltering hot day in Beirut, Lebanon,  July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A fisherman casts his fishing line into the Mediterranean Sea from a rocky area along the Beirut coastline on a sweltering hot day in Beirut, Lebanon, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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Russian Cargo Ship Sinks in Mediterranean with 2 Crew Missing

A fisherman casts his fishing line into the Mediterranean Sea from a rocky area along the Beirut coastline on a sweltering hot day in Beirut, Lebanon,  July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A fisherman casts his fishing line into the Mediterranean Sea from a rocky area along the Beirut coastline on a sweltering hot day in Beirut, Lebanon, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A Russian cargo ship called 'Ursa Major' sank in the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Algeria and two of its crew are missing, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
The ship went down after an explosion in its engine room and 14 of its 16 crew members have been rescued and brought to Spain, Reuters quoted the ministry as saying in a statement.
LSEG ship tracking data shows the vessel departed from the Russian port of Saint Petersburg on Dec. 11 and was last seen sending a signal at 2204 GMT on Monday between Algeria and Spain.
On leaving Saint Petersburg it had indicated that its next port of call was the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian port of Tartous which it has called at previously.
The operator and owner is a company called SK-Yug, part of Oboronlogistics, according to LSEG data. Oboronlogistics and SK-Yug declined to comment on the ship's sinking.
Oboronlogistics said in a statement on Dec. 20 that the ship was carrying specialized port cranes due to be installed at the port of Vladivostok as well as parts for new ice-breakers.



Russia Says It Thwarted Ukrainian Plot to Kill Officer and a Blogger

 A man walks next to the skyscrapers of the Moscow City business district in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP)
A man walks next to the skyscrapers of the Moscow City business district in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP)
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Russia Says It Thwarted Ukrainian Plot to Kill Officer and a Blogger

 A man walks next to the skyscrapers of the Moscow City business district in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP)
A man walks next to the skyscrapers of the Moscow City business district in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP)

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Saturday it had foiled a plot by Ukraine to kill a high-ranking Russian officer and a pro-Russian war blogger with a bomb hidden in a portable music speaker.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that a Russian citizen had established contact with an officer from Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency through the Telegram messaging application.

On the instructions of the Ukrainian intelligence officer, the Russian citizen had then retrieved a bomb from a hiding place in Moscow, the FSB said. The bomb, equivalent to 1 1/2 kg of TNT and packed with ball bearings, was concealed in a portable music speaker, the FSB said.

The FSB did not name the officer or the blogger who was the target of the plot. Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency could not be immediately reached for comment.

Ukraine says Russia's war against it poses an existential threat to the Ukrainian state and has made clear it regards targeted killings - intended to weaken morale and punish those Kyiv regards guilty of war crimes - as legitimate.

Russia has said they amount to illegal "acts of terrorism" and accuses Ukraine of assassinating civilians such as Darya Dugina, the daughter of a nationalist ideologue, in 2022.

On Dec. 17, Ukraine's SBU intelligence service killed Lieutenant General Kirillov, chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, in Moscow outside his apartment building by detonating a bomb attached to an electric scooter. Kyiv had accused him of promoting the use of banned chemical weapons, something Moscow denies.

Donald Trump's designated Ukraine envoy, retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, told Fox News on Dec. 18 that such killings were "not really smart" and going "a little bit too far."

Russia said that it would take revenge for the Kirillov killing.