The ship Rhosus, which delivered ammonium nitrate to the port of Beirut in Lebanon in 2014, which, according to authorities, led to an explosion on August 4, sank in early 2018. The New York Times revealed this fate of the ship.
The journalists of the publication got acquainted with satellite images, photographs, data on the movement of ships, as well as other information. As a result, they came to the conclusion that the ship left Batumi in November 2013. On board there were about 2.7 thousand tons of ammonium nitrate. It was planned to be delivered to Mozambique. According to the newspaper, the bags with saltpeter bore the mark of the Georgian company Rustavi Azot LLC
The vessel unscheduled arrived in Beirut, where it was detained due to technical problems. The publication published a satellite image, which, according to journalists, confirms that there was no cargo on the ship already in 2015. In February 2018, according to journalists, the ship began to sink. It completely went under water in a few days.
It is also indicated that the ship sank in the northern part of the port. It did not obstruct shipping. Saltpeter, which was brought to Beirut aboard the Rhosus, was stored in a warehouse about 450 meters from where the ship sank.
On August 5, it became known that the cargo of ammonium nitrate, which supposedly caused a powerful explosion in Beirut, was confiscated from the ship Rhosus, which belonged to the Khabarovsk resident Igor Grechushkin. The Russians and Ukrainians who worked for Rhosus had to stay in Lebanon for a year as the owner went bankrupt and abandoned the ship.
A powerful explosion occurred in the port area on the evening of 4 August. The damage was inflicted on many quarters of the city, the blast wave also hit the Russian embassy. According to the latest data, more than 4 thousand people were injured, at least 300 thousand lost their homes. The bodies of more than a hundred dead have been found.
