The MV Ruby has been lying and driving while waiting for a decision. The ship was loaded in a Russian port on the Kola Peninsula and, under unclear circumstances, suffered hull damage. Shortly after, the ship sought emergency harbor in Tromsø in Norway. It has since been towed and partially sailed under its own power, with a stated destination of Klaipeda in Lithuania.
The ship has 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate on board. This is a hazardous chemical that, among other things, was behind the notorious mega-explosion in Beirut's harbor in Lebanon in 2020 – but then in much smaller quantities.
According to the Coast Guard, ammonium nitrate is classified as hazardous goods, but the authority assesses that the transport is "part of the normal picture". The technical problems and the fact that the ship may be towed in areas with intense traffic make it important to monitor the ship.
Transports of the substance are common and occur daily to and from Swedish ports.
Ammonium nitrate is produced from ammonia and nitric acid. It is not an explosive in itself, but can, under certain circumstances, be brought to explosion. If it is mixed with oil and aluminum powder, one gets an explosive.
Ammonium nitrate is used for fertilizers, but has also been used to manufacture bombs in a number of atrocities around the world – including in Oklahoma in 1995 and in Bali in 2002.
The Norwegian mass murderer Anders Bering Breivik used the substance for the bomb that detonated outside the government quarters in Oslo in 2011, and it was also used in the suicide bombing in Stockholm in 2010.
In 2020, over 200 people were killed and several thousand injured in a massive explosion in Beirut's harbor. It was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored in the harbor for over six years without adequate safety measures.
