An explosion sank a sanctioned Russian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday night, Russian authorities said, leaving two crew members missing.

Earlier, a Russian cargo ship that Kyiv says was intended to collect weapons from military bases in Syria sunk on route in the Mediterranean Sea. Officials in Moscow said two crew members are missing after an engine room explosion sank the Ursa Major between Spain and Algeria.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has, for the first time, sent combatant units abroad, to aid Russia in the war in Ukraine. As noted in the Joint Statement on the DPRK’s Deployment of Troops to Russia this development indelibly connects the Indo-Pacific and European theaters,