Overview
- Spanish investigators, in a Wednesday letter obtained by AFP, reported the captain said Ursa Major carried components for two submarine‑type nuclear reactors.
- Investigators documented a roughly 50 by 50 centimeter hole with metal bent inward, and sources debated a high‑speed torpedo versus a mine as the cause, while CNN’s interdiction theory remains unproven.
- The freighter slowed in Spanish waters on December 22, 2024, sent a distress call a day later, and after a Russian warship fired red flares nearby, seismic stations registered four blasts before the ship sank.
- U.S. WC‑135 aircraft that sample air for radioactive particles flew over the site in August 2025 and February 2026, with no public findings disclosed, and media report Russian vessels later operated near the wreck.
- The ship belonged to Oboronlogistika, its manifest listed cranes, hatch covers and empty containers, the route to Vladivostok appeared implausible to investigators, two crew died, 14 survived, and a diversion to North Korea’s port of Rason was alleged in interviews.