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A damaged ship carrying up to 20,000 tonnes of explosive ammonium nitrate from Russia is sailing towards the UK after being turned away by other European countries.
The Malta-flagged Ruby is nearing the south eastern coast of England after leaving Russia’s Kandalaksha port last month loaded with the chemical, which is used as a fertiliser but can become explosive when exposed to fire, according to maritime authorities and ship tracking group MarineTraffic.
The vessel has reported its destination as the Maltese fishing village of Marsaxlokk but according to Norwegian authorities has suffered damage to its hull after running aground.
Although there has been no suggestion of an imminent explosion, the ship has raised alarm bells after being instructed to steer clear of ports in Norway and Lithuania, according to diplomats and intelligence experts.
It has reawakened memories of a devastating blast in Beirut four years ago, in which improperly stored ammonium nitrate exploded and killed at least 200 people. The Ruby is carrying more than seven times the amount of the explosive than in the Beirut blast.
The UK’s HM Coastguard said it was in contact with the vessel and will continue to monitor its progress through UK waters.
It added that the ship was “making her own way, accompanied by an escort tug”, and that “HM Coastguard has 24/7 capability to respond to requests for assistance and to ensure the safety of shipping within UK waters”.
The ship has been closely followed since it tried to dock in the Norwegian Arctic port of Tromsø before being sent to anchor away from the coast in early September. Intelligence experts criticised the approach of Norwegian authorities that let the ship, with its dangerous cargo, stay close to crucial military and civilian infrastructure.
Russia’s use of civilian craft to monitor crucial infrastructure, such as oil and gas pipelines in the North, Baltic and Norwegian Seas, has already sparked anxiety in Nordic countries and Nato.
A decrepit shadow fleet of tankers transporting the country’s oil has fuelled concerns, especially in Denmark and around the Baltic Sea, due to the risk of environmental disaster.
The Ruby could “be a great way of testing how Norwegian authorities and Nato would react” to a dangerous ship hitting trouble in their waters, said one Nordic diplomat as it sailed down Norway’s west coast and stalled outside Bergen, the country’s most important oil and gas base.
Finnish and Estonian authorities are separately investigating the cutting of a gas pipeline and data cable between the two countries last October by the anchor of a Chinese container vessel, which had stopped beforehand in Russia.
The sabotage of the twin Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in 2022 remains unexplained by officials. German prosecutors are investigating whether a Ukrainian group was behind the act, while some Nordic officials have focused on the suspicious movements of Russian military vessels around the time of the explosion.