Cleanup continued in the Kerch Strait near Russian-occupied Crimea on Sunday, a week after at least 3,700 tonnes of low-level fuel oil spilled out of two Russian tanks under storm.
More than 7,500 people, many of them volunteers, raced to save wildlife and clean shores of mazut, a low-quality heavy oil product, according to Russian news reports.
By Sunday afternoon, more than 12,000 tons of contaminated soil had been removed along 34 kilometers (21 miles) of coastline, Russian state news agency Tass reported.
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Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said oil continued to wash up the coast of Crimea, despite the announcement last night that clean-up operations off the Crimean peninsula had been successfully completed, which Russia had sent to illegal from Ukraine in 2014.
Russian authorities were still working to assess the impact of the spill. Local scientist Tatyana Beley told Russian state media on Sunday that her team had found 11 dead dolphins whose airways were blocked by fuel oil.
According to the Russian emergency ministry, a rescue operation was launched last Sunday after the Volgoneft-212 ran aground and its bow was torn away in storms. One sailor in the 13-person crew died, officials said. A second tanker, the Volgoneft-239, was left damaged and drifted. It later went ashore near the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region and the 14 crew members were rescued.
The oil spill has affected at least 60 kilometers (37 miles) of coastline, Greenpeace Ukraine said on Tuesday. The charity has had no presence in Russia since 2023, when it was designated an “undesirable organization” by the Russian government.
Some Russian media critical of the Kremlin, as well as Western outlets, reported that Russian volunteers say state aid has been inadequate as they deal with oil spills. . Some reported experiencing headaches, nausea and vomiting after spending hours inhaling toxic fumes.
The Kerch Strait separates the Russian peninsula of Crimea from Russia and is an important global shipping route, providing access from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
It has also been a major point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula. In 2016, Ukraine brought Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitrationwhere she accused Russia of trying to control the region illegally. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, described the oil spill as a “major environmental disaster” of the war and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.
