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Russian Shipping is Being Targeted in the Mediterranean — Transcript · YTtoTranscript

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Russian Shipping is Being Targeted in the Mediterranean

What's Going on With Shipping? · 2,336 words · 12 min read · EN-ORIG

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On this episode of What's Going On with Shipping, a Russian cargo ship in the Mediterranean is the latest target for a bomb-dropping drone. I'm your host, Sal Magaliano. Welcome to today's episode. So, this is part of a series of attacks we've seen against Russian shipping in the Mediterranean since potentially December of 2024. I know when you talk

about ships being attacked, we tend to talk about straight to Hormuz, the Bob El Mandab. Cheers. the Black Sea. But here we see cargo ships of the Russian merchant marine being attacked by drones, both aerial and surface drones. But the most recent attack is against a cargo ship, the Lady Maria, in the

Eastern Mediterranean. We're going to break this down for you and discuss it. If you're new to the channel, hey, take a moment, subscribe to the channel, and hit the bell so be alert about new videos as they come out. So, this is the information on Lady Maria from Marine Traffic. 26-year-old roll-on rolloff

cargo vessel. Very typical of these Russian specialized cargo vessels we've seen operating carrying both commercial and military cargo. 126 m in length, about 8,831 gross tons. Now, this video on X shows you the attack on it. I'm going to read to you from a story from maritime executive. A Russian flag roll on

rolloff cargo ship Lady Maria was attacked by multiple aerial drones in the central Mediterranean while sailing east after departing Iran, Algeria. The Lady Maria left Algeria on September 1st and early on September 6th was plotted by vessel finder 50 nautical miles east of Malta. The attack took place further east between Cit and Libya. Video

footage of the attack shows a number of drones approaching the Lady Maria and dropping bombs onto the deck, initiating a small fire. The Lady Maria, besides having a roll-on rolloff capability and an internal deck often used for wheeled vehicles, also has substantial deck cranes, permitting unloading at poorly equipped harbors and often travels with

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bulky deck cargo. Reports from at Norov TV suggest that the ship was hit by more than 10 bombs which were small enough small enough to cause damage to the deck handling equipment and to the castle of the ship without being big enough to penetrate below decks and to sink the ship. So this video here is very

indicative of the type of attack we had seen earlier this year against a tanker. I'm going to take you through the video here in just some detail and kind of break it up for you. So, first we see the initial approach here. Now, we're not sure how many drones are in this area, but there may be more than one.

Here you can see the lineup on the vessel. The ship's house is up forward here. This is the four castle or the house. They have two cranes on the port side and then back aft they have that. So, this first bomb that's dropped from the drone and again 10 bombs. I'm not sure if a drone can carry 10 bombs or if

it's multiple drones. This one's dropped about a midship. Now, since they're freef fall drone uh bombs, they're not going to penetrate the deck. They're just going to explode on deck. And you can see that flash and explosion there. Then they begin to target some of the machinery of the ship here. They're targeting the crane, trying to hit the

base and damage the electrical and mechanical nature of the cranes, disabling the ability of the ship to offload. We don't see any deck cargo on the ship. Then the next series of attacks, and this is really the majority of the attacks are on the two after stacks. They're trying to damage the exhaust and vents here for the ship's uh

propulsion systems. So, numerous bombs going off on the port and starboard after stack here. Now, this is not enough to destroy the vessel. It's not enough to really prevent the ship from continuing sailing. Uh what we see here is just repeated attacks in an effort to damage and potentially disable the vessel. So again, harassing attacks.

This is not of the same level of some other attacks we have seen in the past. Now if that ship looks familiar, that's because the Russians use these type of ships a lot as I noted in particular a sister ship. This vessel right here, the Ursa Major. Now, this vessel was a victim of supposed act of terrorism back

on December 23rd, 2024. So, this is from a story on GC Captain by Reuters. A Russian cargo ship that ran into trouble on Monday in the Mediterranean Sea and later sank was rocked by a series of three explosions in a quote act of terrorism unquote. State news agency RIA cited the vessel's owner as saying on

Wednesday Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Ursa Major built in 2009 sank after an explosion ripped through its engine room and that two of the 16 crew were missing. Raia cited the owner and a company that is part of the Russian Defense Ministry's military construction operations as saying on Wednesday that the vessel had been

targeted in a terrorist act. The ship had begun to sharply list as it was obviously taking in water after detonations rocked the ship's starboard side at 13:50 Moscow time, 10:50 GMT on December 23rd. The story goes on. It was carrying two giant port cranes on deck with their loading buckets, two heavy hatch covers for icebreaking vessels,

129 empty containers, and a 20ft container with roofing equipment. Now, it's kind of strange to be carrying uh empty containers on a vessel that's sailing to the Pacific. However, a subsequent story a year later over in Maritime Executive expanded on this. The special cargo aboard the Russian arm ship that went down off Cardahia last

year was not what its crew initially reported. According to the Spanish outlet Lever Verdata, the blue tarped objects on the vessel stern was likely nuclear reactor components unfueled and potentially heading for North Korea. In December 2024, Ursa Major was underway way in an eastbound convoy through the Straight of Jialter, a trip she had made

many times before. The vessel was well known to ship watchers as a Russian armed ship. On December 21st, Spanish maritime search and rescue authorities noticed the vessel was making unusual course changes. On the 22nd, Ursa Major veered to port and slowed to make steerage, then drifted. A distress call came at last on the 23rd, and Spanish

authorities dispatched search and rescue units. On arrival, they found that the ship was listing, two engineering crew members were missing, the engine room was shut tight, and the survivors were ready to abandon ship. The circumstances of the vessel's sudden sinking was suspicious. Ursa Major's master, Captain Igor Anismoff, initially told investigators that the cargo consisted

of more than 100 empty containers, two giant crawlers on deck, and two large components for a Russian icebreaker, all headed to Vladivastto. Documents seen by Lurvad show that Spanish investigators identified the cargo as a pair of castings for nuclear submarine reactors, specifically for a pair of Soviet era VM-4sg reactors. The model was the final

iteration of the VM series, the nuclear reactors that powered Russia's nuclear ballistic missile subfleet through the Cold War. Spanish authorities speculated that the reactor parts may have been destined for the North Korea nuclear submarine program, which just launched its first ballistic missile sub. Multiple analysts have suggested the newbuilt North Korean vessel likely

benefited from Russian technical assistance. The cause of Ursa Major's sinking appears to be kinetic. The ship owner told media there were three explosions and a 20-in hole in the shell plating and that the captain confirmed that the holes ragged engines were bent inwards. This is consistent with an explosion on the outside of the hull.

So, this goes back to December of 2024. Could this have been a external attack? Obviously, it could. Ursa Major also looks a lot like SLNC York, the ship that suffered a propeller shaft uh separation at at the flange where the shaft bolted off 5 ft, went through the stern of the vessel, blew the aft seal,

and began to flood. But this seems more substantial in particularly the death of two crew members. We then have this attack on the tanker Quentel. This is on December 19th, 2025. So almost a year later in the Mediterranean, this video shows the attack. This story comes from Reuters over in GC Captain. Ukraine has

struck a Russian Shadowfleet oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea with aerial drones for the first time, an official said on Friday, reflecting the growing intensity of Ke's attack on Russian oil shipping. The vessel, the Quendil, was empty when it was struck by drones in neutral waters more than,250 miles from Ukraine, sustaining critical damage, the

official at the SBU security services said in a written statement. The tanker was located off Libya's coast at 13:30 GMT. The Ukrainian official, who declined to be named, did not say exactly where the tanker had been at the time of the attack or when it happened. Overhead footage provided by the source showed a small explosion on the deck of

a tanker. Reuters confirmed the vessel shown in the video was Quendell by comparing it with imagery, but could not verify the time or location. Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil refineries throughout 2024 and 2025, but has visibly widened his campaign in recent weeks, striking oil rigs in the Caspian Sea and claiming credit for drone

attacks on three tankers in the Black Sea.Wendell was in route to the Russian port of Usluga in the Baltic Sea from the Indian port of Sika. according to data from marine traffic. So you have the attack on Ursa Major in December of 2024, the attack on Quendell in December of 2025, and then we have attack earlier this

year on a liqufied natural gas carrier. This video shows the attack on the LG carrier Arctic Metagas. This is from a story over in G Captain by Malt Humphfort. The burntout Russian LG carrier Arctic Metagas has been anchored off Libya's eastern coast, potentially ending a two-month drift across the central Mediterranean. Though uncertainty remains over how authorities

will handle the stricken vessel. Satellite imagery and maritime tracking data show the tanker holding position roughly 18 nautical miles northnortheast of Benghazi for several days, indicating Libyan authorities have succeeded in securing it after repeated failed towing attempts. The development follows a chaotic period since early March when the vessel was reportedly hit by a

Ukrainian sea drone while transiting about 150 nautical miles southeast of Malta. The blast forced the crew to abandoned ship and left a 277 meter tanker a drift with a hazardous cargo of liqufied natural gas and fuel on board. In the weeks that followed, Arctic Metagas drifted through Maltese and Italian waters before entering the

Libyan search and rescue zone. So here you go, another attack. March of 2026. And now we have the attack on Lady Marie September of 2026. When we start talking about ships being attacked, we don't tend to talk about the Mediterranean, but obviously Russian ships in the Mediterranean are being targeted. Now, Russian ships are not just being

targeted in the Mediterranean, I should note. So, I just typed Russia into the search bar of GC Captain to get the latest stories. And what you see here is Russia ships being absolutely essential for moving cargo, particularly in the Arctic. So, a lot of Arctic stories here. New Arctic shipping route being used. Uh, Norway just arrested and

seized a vessel off the Savalbard Islands. Uh, we have, uh, China and Russia working on moving ships through. We have Russia doubling its LG fleet. But here, EU forces board the six suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker. This is back on August 31st. Russia considers grain purchases to offset export disruptions. This is coming out

of the Black Sea. Ukraine says Russia hits 52 civilian ships in six weeks in the Black Sea. Russia Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports grind to a virtual halt. Russia's Black Sea Nova Risk Sky port resumes oil loading after drone attacks. Arctic ice damages tankers. Russia ramps up northern sea routes. Ukraine halt strikes on tankers using I

mean this is just for the past month back into August. So definitely a heat up in Russian shipping across the board. The most latest attack here against the Lady Maria. We've seen how Ukraine has targeted Russian infrastructure, both commercial and military ashure. But over the past nearly 2 years, they have also targeted Russian shipping, particularly

in the Black Sea, but also out into the Mediterranean. Now, not as much, but definitely attacking it. My concern is will Ukraine shift their attacks into the Baltic and potentially the Arctic and worried about an Arctic environmental damage up there is great concern. We've already seen specific attacks on these four ships uh Ursa

Major Quantel Arctic Metagas and now Lady Maria in the Mediterranean. Does Ukraine spread this out? Who knows? But it once again it demonstrates how the world's oceans are becoming a battlefield and that challenge to freedom of the seas. I hope you got something out of today's video. If you did, hey, take a moment, subscribe to

the channel and hit the bell so be alerted about new videos as they come out. Leave a comment, share it across social media, give it a big thumbs up, and if you can support the page. How do you do it? Well, you can hit the super thanks button down below or head on over

to Patreon and become a monthly yearly subscriber. Until the next episode, S signing