Russian Spy Ship Yantar Survey Sunken Cargo Vessel MV Ursa

This area corresponds with the location where on December 24th , the Russian cargo vessel MV Ursa Major sank after an alleged explosion in her engine room that might have taken place on December 23rd around 12:30 local time.

Fourteen of the sixteen crew members were rescued by the Spanish Coast Guard, leaving two sailors missing when the ship sank. The presence of the research vessel Yantar at the wreckage site of the MV Ursa Major is raising questions on the Russian intentions with the wreckage site.

The Yantar is a Project 22010 special purpose intelligence collection vessel that is in service with Russia’s Ministry of Defense Main Directorate of Deep Water Research (GUGI). The vessel is most known for its oceanographic surveillance operations and is suspected of detecting and mapping critical Western and NATO underwater infrastructure in the Baltic and North Seas. The vessel entered the Mediterranean on November 25th via the Strait of Gibraltar.

It then proceeded to conduct a port visit at Algiers, Algeria, most likely resupplying itself before starting its operations in the Mediterranean. This procedure is common for Russian military vessels arriving in the Mediterranean without an escorting supply ship to provide them of fuel, water and food.

The Yantar was last observed back at Algiers between January 11th until 14th. James Droxford, a former Navy and Intelligence Agency officer reports on his blog that during this period the Russian Rear Admiral Konovalov was photographed at a reception together with the Algerian Navy Brigadier-General who is in charge of the 1st Military District based at Algiers.

Rear Admiral Konovalov is known to be the commander of the 29th Special Purpose Submarine Brigade, a unit that operates special submersible craft for GUGI. The presence of such a high ranking military member on board of the Yantar is raising questions on what exactly the vessel is trying to investigate at the wreckage site of the MV Ursa Major. Whatever the reason is for Yantar to operate over the MV Ursa Major’s wreckage, the issue appears to be important enough to have Rear Admiral Konovalov, be present on board of the Yantar to oversee the operations. The presence of such a high ranking officer suggest that Yantar’s operations are probably ordered high up in Russia’s political decision making processes.

It should be noted that Yantar operates specialized manned and unmanned underwater vehicles used for very specific missions under water. Among these submersibles are two three-man submersibles, named Rus and Konsal, capable of diving down to 6.000 meters deep.

The vessel is often suspected of diving to undersea cables for reconnaissance and possible sabotage missions but also has a track history investigating military wreckages.

Yantar was used during 2017 to investigate the wrecks of a MiG-29K and Su-33 aircraft that crashed overboard from Russia’s aircraft carrier RFS Admiral Kuznetsov when it was operating in the Levant Sea, conducting airstrikes on behalf of the Syrian regime of Al-Assad. Yantar was most likely used to destroy sensitive military devices onboard these aircraft before they would be investigated by NATO forces. In November of the same year, the Yantar was deployed to aid in the search of the sunken Argentinian submarine ARA San Juan.

The Russian cargo vessel MV Ursa Major was a known weapon runner who frequently transported military equipment and ammunition between Russia and Syria. However, during her last trip, the vessel was heading from Saint Petersburg towards Vladivostok via the Suez Canal. The vessel was transporting two 45-ton hatches intended to be installed on Russia’s Project 10510 nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya which is under construction at the Zvezda shipyard in Bolshoy Kamen near Vladivostok. Also present on the deck of the MV Ursa Major were two large cranes intended for use in the port of Vladivostok These cranes were part of Russia’s ongoing development of port facilities along the Northern Sea Route.

The vessel suffered an explosion in its engine room on December 23rd and sank the next day on December 24th. Russia maintains that the explosions in the engine room was the result of a targeted terrorist attack with crew members describing three successive explosions on the starboard side of the vessel.

At the moment there is no evidence backing up the Russian claims. The sinking of the MV Ursa Major took place in a period where several older Russian cargo vessels were experiencing technical and mechanical breakdowns. Prior to the MV Ursa Major, two older oil tankers sank in the Kerch Strait of the Black Sea on December 16th . Another Russian civilian cargo vessel, MV Sparta, that was traveling together with MV Ursa Major, developed problems with her engines while the vessel was near Brest, France on December 17th .

The reason why the Yantar arrived at the wreckage site of the MV Ursa Major is unknown but several options are available. Yantar could be conducting a thorough investigation of the wreckage in order to determine the cause of the explosions in the engine room. It can also aid in the destruction of sensitive materials as MV Ursa Major is known to have smuggled weapons in the past and possible evidence might still be on board of the vessel.

Another theory is that Yantar is dispatched trying to recover the 45-ton hatches intended for the icebreaker Rossiya. Heavy metal work for the construction of the icebreaker was originally subcontracted to a firm in Ukraine. However, as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the company’s facilities were reported damaged and the heavy metalwork was re-contracted to a Russian firm. With Russia’s economy already under pressure as a result of Western sanctions and an increase demand on military spending, recovering these hatches might possible result in avoiding additional rework, cost overruns and delays on the construction of the icebreaker Rossiya.

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