A Russian tanker broken in two spills tons of fuel oil into the Black Sea in the Kerch Strait, off the coast of Crimea annexed by Moscow. Further adrift, another Russian tanker ran aground near the port of Taman. On board these two tankers, the Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239, 13 and 14 crew members each. “Due to a storm in the Black Sea, two tankers, the Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239, suffered an accident,” declared the Russian Federal Agency for River and Maritime Transport (Rosmorretchflot). On Telegram, she adds that this double grounding led to “a spill of petroleum products” and that two tugboats and two helicopters were sent as part of a rescue operation. The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry adds that a crew member died in the sinking of the Volgoneft-212, the boat broken in two.
Eleven evacuated sailors, victims of hypothermia, were hospitalized in the city of Anapa, detailed the governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamine Kondratiev, on Telegram. The evacuation of 14 sailors still on board the second ship was suspended due to bad weather, the emergency services said in the evening.
These two sea giants, 132 and 136 meters long, transported a total of 9,000 tonnes of fuel oil. Russian authorities have not given details on the scale of the oil spill. President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a working group to “eliminate” this pollution at sea, the Kremlin announced.
The causes of this double grounding have not yet been clarified but two investigations have been opened for “violation of safety rules”. According to a sea rescue source, two hypotheses are possible: a crew error in the middle of a storm or overloading caused by waves on these boats dating from the 1980s and designed for river navigation or at sea in calm weather.
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