Putin's explosive rust barge Floating Hiroshima bomb wanders through the North Sea

A damaged freighter with an explosive cargo has been wandering through the North Sea for weeks. The "Ruby" is carrying 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate from Russia: with the explosive power of a nuclear bomb. Where is the journey going?

The cargo is explosive, the actions suspicious to say the least: the Maltese-flagged freighter "Ruby" has been bobbing around the North Sea for more than four weeks. The crew of the "Ruby" claims to have technical problems. The rudder and hull are damaged.

However, the "Ruby" is not allowed to call at a port for repairs. The authorities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark say it is too dangerous. Lithuania has already turned it down, and most recently Malta refused entry.

But one thing at a time.

Freighter has the explosive power of a nuclear bomb

The "Ruby" is operated by a Russian crew and is carrying 20,000 tons of Russian-made ammonium nitrate. The chemical is used for fertilizer or explosives - and it is highly dangerous, as the devastating explosion in Beirut in August 2020 showed.

Four years ago, around 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up in the Lebanese capital. The "Ruby" stored seven times as much. Roland Alford, managing director of an explosives company, told Newsweek that it would be "by far the largest unintentional explosion of ammonium nitrate if it were to detonate".

If the charge were to explode, the explosive force would be roughly equivalent to the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Nobody wants to have such a potential explosive device on their doorstep.

Mysterious odyssey

At the beginning of September, the Norwegian newspaper "The Barents Observer" reported that the "Ruby" had left the Russian port of Kandalaksha on the Kola Peninsula on August 22, bound for the Canary Islands. The "Ruby" had originally set sail from the northern Russian peninsula of Kola. Under unclear circumstances, it sustained damage shortly after leaving the Russian port, but continued on and sought a safe harbor.

After some time in the port of Tromsö, the ship was then ordered to leave this port and head for a position where it could be repaired at anchor. The 183-metre-long ship spent the following days and weeks in the North Sea without finding a port. As reported by Die Welt, the freighter was towed by a tugboat through the Kattegat towards the Danish Baltic Sea.

Norway as well as Sweden and Lithuania refused the "Ruby" entry. The Danish Maritime Administration had only allowed the freighter to pass through Danish waters with a pilot on board. The ship finally set course for Malta, where it was due to arrive in the port of Marsaxlokk on October 8, according to online information from the ship tracking services Vesselfinder and Marinetraffic.

Damage is unclear

However, Malta also refused the damaged freighter entry. The ship was only allowed to enter a Maltese port if it had first unloaded its cargo, the transport authority in Valletta announced. The authority instructed the crew to transfer the cargo to ships outside Maltese territorial waters.

It is unclear how badly damaged the freighter really is in this mysterious odyssey. Dag Inge Aarhus from the Norwegian Maritime Authority told ARD: "The shipping company has told us that there is damage to the hull and the ship's propeller and that some water has entered."

What does Russia want with the "Ruby"?

Several countries bordering the North Sea and Baltic Sea have been keeping a close eye on the freighter's route in recent days because of its cargo. However, explosives expert Peter Hald from the Danish University of Aarhus told the Danish broadcaster DR that the "Ruby" posed no immediate danger. "It's not as if it will explode if the ship bumps into something or someone drops something into the cargo." The good thing about ammonium nitrate is that "it's actually quite difficult to ignite."

Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, experts have been warning of a "shadow fleet" of often outdated and poorly maintained ships under the flag of third countries that transport Russian goods through the Baltic and North Seas. Jacob Kaarsbo from the Danish think tank Europa told DR that the "Ruby" was behaving "suspiciously". He does not rule out the possibility that the ship is part of a hybrid war with which Putin's Russia wants to test the reaction of the northern European states, said Kaarsbo.