The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major sank in the Mediterranean between Spain and Algeria after an explosion in the engine room.

It said 14 crew members had been rescued and taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena, but two others were missing.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Ursa Major left the port of St. Petersburg twelve days ago.

The ship’s owner said it was en route to Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East and was carrying two port cranes weighing 380 tons each, although the destination could not be independently confirmed.

Before Ursa Major sank, 14 people were found on a lifeboat and brought safely to Spain, according to the Spanish maritime rescue agency Salvamento Marítimo. A Russian warship then arrived in the area to take over the rescue operation.

Ursa Major was in the same area of ​​the Mediterranean as another sanctioned Russian ship, Sparta, when it ran into trouble and the two ships were spotted transiting the English Channel last week, reportedly under escort.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian Military Intelligence (HUR) reported that the Sparta was heading to the Russian naval base on the Syrian coast in Tartus to transport military equipment from Syria following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

A Kremlin official said on Monday that Russia was in contact with Syria’s new rulers at both diplomatic and military levels about the future of its two military facilities.

The Ursa Major’s owner, Oboronlogistika, was heavily involved in transporting cargo to Tartous, although Sparta’s destination on Tuesday was Port Said in Egypt.

Maritime transport monitoring website LSEG told the BBC that Ursa Major’s automatic ID system (AIS) had shown that its destination had been Vladivostok since December 11 and that its last call at the port of Tartus was in July have.

On Monday, HUR reported that the Sparta had broken down off Portugal, but the problem had been resolved. Ursa Major was originally known as Sparta III, so it was not clear which ship the Ukrainians were referring to.

But the Sparta also got into trouble a week ago in rough seas off Brittany in northwestern France. Radio France Inter reported that the Russian cargo ship initially did not respond to French communications on Tuesday, December 17, until it admitted it was having a problem.

“I’m in trouble. My engines are currently down, the tiller is not responding. We will try to resolve the issue in the next few minutes.” RFI reported this over the ship’s radio.

After 61 minutes of drifting, Sparta said she was back on track.

It is not known what caused the explosion on the Ursa Major as it passed between Oran in Algeria and the Spanish town of Águilas on Monday afternoon.

However, a video taken from the tanker Ross Sea between 12:00 and 13:00 GMT on December 23 and reviewed by the BBC showed the ship listing poorly.

It finally sank around 01:20 GMT on Tuesday.

Ursa Major was built in 2009 and was sanctioned following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 over the ship’s owner’s role in delivering cargo to the Russian military.

Oboronlogistika said the cargo ship, which it described as the flagship of its fleet, carries 45-ton hatch covers for icebreakers as well as the large cranes for the port in Vladivostok.

Additional reporting from BBC Verify’s Josh Cheetham, Paul Brown and Daniele Palumbo