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Oil spill continues to spread - Ukraine calls on additional sanctions on Russian tankers

An emergency taskforce has arrived in Russia's Krasnodar region as the oil spill in the Kerch Strait continued to spread a month after it was first detected. The team, which included Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov, was set up after V. Putin called on authorities on Jan 10 to ramp up the response to the spill. Kurenkov said that a "most difficult situation" had developed near the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, where fuel oil continued to leak into the sea from the damaged part of the 'Volgoneft 239'. and thatthe remaining oil will be pumped out of the tanker's stern. The Emergencies Ministry said that over 155,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil have been collected since the shipwrecks. Russian-installed officials in Ukraine’s partially Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region said on Jan 11 that mazut had reached the Berdyansk Spit, about 145 kilometres north of the Kerch Strait. It contaminated an area of more than 14 kilometers length, according to the Moscow-installed Governor Yevgeny Balitsky. Russian-appointed officials in the Russian-occupied Crimea announced a regional emergency last weekend after oil was detected on the shores of Sevastopol. In response to Putin's call for action, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi on Jan 10 accused Russia of "beginning to demonstrate its concern only after the scale of the disaster became too obvious to conceal its terrible consequences. Russia's practice of first ignoring the problem, then admitting its inability to solve it, and ultimately leaving the entire Black Sea region alone with the consequences is yet another proof of its international irresponsibility." Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, described the oil spill last month as a "large-scale environmental disaster" and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.

Oil spill continues to spread

The oil spill that has been affecting southwestern Russia and the occupied Crimea since mid-December,, continues to spread with pollution detected on new beaches, authorities announced on Jan 9. The 'Volgoneft-212' and the 'Volgoneft-239' were carrying 9,200 tons of fuel oil, about 40% of which may have spilled into the sea. Authorities and volunteers have organized a vast clean-up operation, but the situation continues to cause concern. Since the start of the oil spill, nearly 73,000 tons of contaminated sand have been removed from dozens of kilometers of beach on the coast, but in total, some 200,000 tons of soil may have been affected. Despite the massive clean-up campaign involving thousands of people, the situation could still get worse. Vladimir Putin acknowledged that it was an "ecological catastrophe" and criticized his team's "insufficient" efforts to deal with it. He targeted in particular the Minister of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov: His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the extent of the environmental damage was "impossible to calculate at this time". At this stage, the massive pollution has mainly affected the coasts of the Russian region of Krasnodar and the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, including Sevastopol, which is located about 250 kilometers from the site where the oil tankers wrecked. Report with photos: https://www.rfi.fr/fr/europe/20250109-naufrage-de-deux-p%C3%A9troliers-en-mer-noire-vladimir-poutine-hausse-le-ton

Several dead whales became victim of Russian tanker wrecks

More than three weeks after the 'Volgoneft 212' and 'Volgoneft 239' shipwrecked, several dead whales have washed up on the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Local politician Pavel Kharlamov, who is involved in cleaning up the beaches, told on Jan 8 that the carcasses washed up in Sevastopol would now be removed. The authorities appointed by Russia feared that the situation in Crimea would worsen further. On Jan 5, an animal welfare organization from Sochi had announced that more than 30 marine mammals had been found dead since the accident. Most of the dead animals were a subspecies of porpoise found in the Black Sea, which is one of the smallest species of whale and is often confused with dolphins. The Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Jan 8 that there was a high risk that the situation will worsen and the extent of the crisis will be comparable to that in the Russian region of Krasnodar. The main focus now would have to be on keeping the oil slick away from the coast and cleaning the water. Thousands of people are involved in cleaning the beaches of the Crimean peninsula and the Russian Black Sea coast, including many volunteers. On Jan 7, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations announced that more than 118,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil had been removed from a dozen-kilometer stretch of beach on the Russian coast. At least 287 tons have been cleaned so far in Crimea and Sevastopol.