Putin's rust barge ends its odyssey Ghost ship "Ruby" docks in England with explosive cargo
The cargo was delicate, the procedure suspicious: the "Ruby" bobbed through the North Sea for months. Because of the explosive cargo from Russia, the ship was not allowed to dock anywhere - but has now found a port.
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- The freighter "Ruby" wrecked in August shortly after its departure from Russia.
- Due to the highly explosive cargo and suspicious circumstances, numerous countries refused the ship entry to their ports.
- However, the freighter has now been allowed to dock in England, where the dangerous cargo is to be unloaded.
For weeks, a damaged freighter with dangerous cargo wandered through the North Sea: no neighboring country wanted to allow the "Ruby" to enter a port. Malta, whose flag the "Ruby" flies, also refused.
The reason: the ship was carrying 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate. This highly explosive chemical is primarily used as the main component of fertilizer, but can also be used as an explosive. If the cargo of the "Ruby" were to explode, the explosive force would be roughly equivalent to that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
The ship was last anchored near the English town of Margate - and has only now found a port. The ship, which was presumably damaged in a storm back in August, docked in Great Yarmouth in eastern England, according to data from the ship tracking service "Vesselfinder": the port is fulfilling its obligations and is helping the ship to reload its cargo, said port manager Richard Goffin.
Ammonium nitrate caused the Beirut disaster
The "Ruby" had originally set sail from the northern Russian peninsula of Kola. Under unclear circumstances, it sustained damage to its hull shortly after leaving the Russian port, but continued on its journey. After a few weeks in Tromsö, the Norwegian port asked the freighter to leave. Since then, the "Ruby" had been sailing on the open sea.
The freighter's route was followed by authorities in several countries because of its cargo. The behavior of the crew is suspicious, but it is still unclear how serious the damage is. Many observers assume that the ship is part of a hybrid war with which Vladimir Putin's Russia wanted to test the reaction of the northern European states.
Ammonium nitrate is considered to have triggered the disaster in the port of the Lebanese capital Beirut in August 2020, where large quantities of the chemical had been improperly stored in the port for years. More than 200 people died in an explosion at the time.
With agency material.
