Oil pollution on Russia's Black Sea beaches through tanker gap

Oil pollution on Russia's Black Sea beaches through tanker gap

The coastal regions of the Black Sea in Russia are flooded by oil, which leaves the accident due to the accident of two Russian tankers last weekend. The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj warned of an “environmental disaster”.

serious environmental impacts

videos that have been geolocalized by CNN show how the black waves bring the inferior heating oil - known as Mazut - to the beaches of the Russian region of Krasnodar, near the Kersch street between the Russian mainland and the occupied crime. In one of the videos you can see a bird whose wings are glued with oil. Desperately he screams as he sits in the sand and is shaken back and forth by the waves, unable to lift his wings to fly.

scope of pollution

According to Greenpeace Ukraine, the oil spill affected at least 60 kilometers of coastline. "Several cities have declared an emergency. Cases of contaminated birds were recorded," said the organization on Tuesday.

causes of misfortune

The two tankers - the Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239 - transported thousands of tons of fuel in the Kertsch street when they got into difficulties on Sunday at wind speeds of up to 70 km/h. A previously published video showed Volgoneft 212, which was stranded about 10 kilometers south of the Kertsch Bridge in Russia.

criticism of Russia

Selenskyj criticized Moscow sharply because it sent "old, poorly maintained" ships under stormy conditions. "These ships are almost 50 years old. They should never have been in operation, especially not in this water and at this time of year. Our sea is currently looking forward to another environmental disaster caused by Russia," said Selenskyj on Tuesday.

security concerns in the maritime area

The Maritime Security company Ambrey reported that one of the tankers had invited 4,300 tons of Mazut. According to Ambrey, these Soviet ships have "broken and dropped and dropped again and again in bad weather in recent years", whereby reference was made to the wreck of a tanker that was in front of anchor in 2021. The company pointed out that Russia has difficulty replacing its aging fleet due to western sanctions.

Putin's war financing

Selenskyj said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "uses these tankers to finance his war" by transporting oil from the Black Sea.

cleaning measures and challenges

Weniamin Kondratiev, governor of the Russian region of Krasnodar, announced that the efforts to clean the oil residues washed ashore are hindered by stormy weather. "The weather makes the situation difficult, the storm at sea does not subside, so it is difficult to predict how long it will take to completely clean the coast," said Kondratay in a telegram post on Tuesday. Previously, he had mentioned that oil had been washed up along dozens of kilometers of the Russian coast.

international reactions

videos that were geolocalized by CNN show a beach near Anapa, north of the city of Novorossiysk, which is flooded with oil. "The locals say that the stench is terrible," wrote the Russian ecologist Zhora Kavanosyan on Telegram.

call to the international community

In a speech to the joint expedition troop, a British leadership of Northern Europe, which met on Tuesday in the Estonian capital Tallinn, Selenskyj asked the international community to prove the "shadow" tank fleet of Russia with sanctions. "This would not only prevent Russia financing, but also protect nature," he said.

Report by Catherine Nicholls, CNN