On Sunday, two Russian tankers, the Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239, ran aground during a storm in the Kerch Strait which separates Russia from the Ukrainian Crimea peninsula which it annexed in 2014. The first sank, while the second was badly damaged. One person died and 26 crew members evacuated, according to the government.
On Monday, the Russian government admitted that the incident had led to the spill of fuel oil, raising fears of the formation of a slick pushed by the winds towards the coasts. “On the instructions of the governor, an operational headquarters was deployed […] and an operation aimed at eliminating the consequences is underway,” the Anapa town hall said on Tuesday, without giving further details.
“Threat of disaster”
The Telegram channel Baza published videos showing a beach covered in fuel oil, stained and blackened birds, nailed to the ground. According to the regional Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Chtrikov, at least “30 kilometers” of beaches have been polluted by the spill of fuel oil on the Russian coast.
The governor of the Krasnodar region, Véniamine Kondratiev, assured that rescuers were mobilized on the coasts to “eliminate the consequences” of the disaster. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, cited by the Ria Novosti agency, “the work is made difficult by strong gusts of wind, which in places reach 29 meters per second”.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources for its part denounced on Monday “a threat of large-scale environmental disaster in the Black Sea”.
