Russia: oil spill worsens after new leak detected in one of the stranded tankers

The oil spill is getting worse off the Kerch Strait. This is where, on December 15, two Russian tankers ran aground during a storm. The authorities announced this Friday that they had detected a new fuel oil leak in one of the two ships.

“A leak of petroleum products was detected from the stern of the Volganeft-239 tanker“, announced the service managing the crisis in the Krasnodar region, in southwest Russia. In a video, we can see the Volganeft-239 embedded along the shore on the Russian coast, half leaning. Fuel oil is visible in the water.

Cetaceans found dead

According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, the discovered slick is approximately 2,800 m² and five ships were dispatched to the site to eliminate it. Since mid-December, the authorities and volunteers have also been carrying out a vast cleaning operation, involving thousands of people. But the situation continues to cause concern: several cetaceans, including porpoises, have been found dead in recent weeks, deplored a specialized Russian NGO and the head of a group of volunteers cleaning contaminated areas. Many birds covered in fuel oil were also seen.

In total, more than 147,000 tonnes of contaminated sand and soil were removed from dozens of kilometers of coastline in Russia. The pollution also reached the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, in particular the port of Sevastopol, located approximately 250 km from the disaster.

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  Oil spill in Russia after the accident of two tankers: heavy and “persistent” fuel oil complicates the situation

On Wednesday, local authorities said they feared “a worsening” of the situation. President Vladimir Putin for his part criticized the efforts on Thursday “insufficient” in his eyes of his government to face one of the environmental crises “the most serious” of recent years.