Russian authorities reported on Saturday a “critical” situation due to the oil spill caused by the mid-December sinking of oil tankers between Russia and annexed Crimea, which has declared a state of emergency.
“The situation is really critical. Unfortunately, negative consequences in terms of ecology are inevitable,” declared Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies.
On December 15, two Russian tankers, the Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239, ran aground during a storm in the Kerch Strait, which separates Russia from Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014. The ships were carrying 9,200 tonnes of fuel oil, around 40% of which could have spilled into the sea, according to Russian authorities.
Dmitri Peskov called on government authorities to make “maximum efforts” to deal with the consequences of the spill of thousands of tonnes of fuel oil, particularly on the beaches of south-west Russia. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to calculate the extent of the damage caused to the environment at the moment, but specialists regularly carry out this work.”
plastic shovels and bags
The leader of Crimea, Sergei Aksionov, announced on Telegram that he had declared a state of emergency “due to the spill of oil products in the Kerch Strait”, which connects the two territories. The Russian Ministry of Transport was reassuring, announcing on Saturday morning that “all areas of pollution identified in the aquatic area have been cleaned” and that “no repeated pollution has been detected”.
“The threat of a new fuel oil leak in the Black Sea due to sunken tankers and their spilling on the shore persists,” however, nuanced the Minister of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kourenkov.
Thousands of volunteers have mobilized to clean the beaches of southwest Russia, a tourist region which has seen its sand stained with sticky fuel oil. But, according to scientists, their equipment is not sufficient. “There are no bulldozers on site, no trucks. Virtually no technical equipment,” hydrologist Viktor Danilov-Danilian, scientific director of the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said at a press conference.
The volunteers only have “useless shovels and plastic bags that burst,” denounced Viktor Danilov-Danilian. President Vladimir Putin recognized last week that it was an “ecological disaster”, which could pollute up to 200,000 tonnes of soil.
