A Russian cargo ship called Ursa Major hss sank in the Mediterranean Sea.

The overnight incident reportedly occurred after an explosion ripped through the cargo ship’s engine room.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday after the incident that two of its crew are still missing.

The vessel, built in 2009, was controlled by Oboronlogistika, a company that is part of the Russian Defence Ministry’s military construction operations.

It had previously said that the ship was en route to the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok with two giant port cranes lashed to its deck.

The Foreign Ministry’s crisis centre said in a statement that 14 of the ship’s 16 crew members had been rescued and brought to Spain, but that two were still missing. It did not say what had caused the engine room explosion.

Russia’s embassy in Spain was cited by the state RIA news agency as saying it was looking into the circumstances of the sinking and was in touch with the authorities in Spain.

Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, a company LSEG lists as part of the group and the ship’s direct owner and operator, declined to comment on the sinking.

Both entities were placed under sanctions by the United States in 2022 for their ties to Russia’s military as was the Ursa Major itself

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