Russian officials warned of serious environmental damage on Wednesday as thousands of people came out to clean up tons of fuel oil that spilled from two storm-hit tankers in the Kerch Strait, near Moscow-occupied Crimea, more than two weeks ago.
More than 10,000 people, mostly volunteers, rushed to rescue wildlife and remove tons of sand saturated with mazut, a low-quality heavy oil product, according to Russian news reports.
Authorities in Russia's southern Krasnodar region last week announced a region-wide state of emergency as fuel oil continued to wash up on the coast, 10 days after one tanker ran aground and another was damaged and adrift on December 15 left behind.
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The move came days after Russian President Vladimir Putin called the oil spill an “ecological disaster.”
On Wednesday, New Year's Day, Krasnodar officials said oil continued to surface on the beaches of Anapa, a popular local resort.
More than 71,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil have been removed along 56 kilometers of coastline since the original spill, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said Wednesday morning.
On December 23, the ministry estimated that a total of up to 200,000 tons could be contaminated.
Some Russian media critical of the Kremlin quoted Russian volunteers as saying state aid was inadequate as they grapple with the fallout from the spill. Some said they suffered headaches, nausea and vomiting after hours of inhaling toxic fumes, and complained of inadequate equipment and protective measures.
Others called for international specialists to be sent, citing the scale of the spill and the likely scale of the impact.
Photos circulating on social media and local news channels show seabirds covered in black fuel oil.
More than 20 dolphins may have died in the spill, the local Delfa dolphin rescue center said, and tests were being carried out to determine the cause of the deaths.
The Kerch Strait separates the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia and is a major global shipping route providing passage from the Azov Inland Sea to the Black Sea.
It was also a major point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, accusing Russia of attempting to illegally take control of the territory. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described the oil spill last month as a “major environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions against Russian tankers.
