An emergency task force arrived in Russia's southern Krasnodar region on Sunday as an oil spill in the Kerch Strait from two storm-topped tanks continues to spread a month after it was first discovered, officials said.
The task force, which includes Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov, was formed after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on authorities to ramp up the response to the spill, saying it was “one of the most serious environmental challenges we have faced in recent years. .”
The Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday that more than 155,000 tonnes of contaminated sand and soil had been collected since the oil spill from two tanks in a storm four weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Crimean peninsula occupied by Russia from the Krasnodar region.
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Officials deployed by Russia in the predominantly Russian region of Zaporizhzhia said on Saturday that the mazut – a low-quality heavy oil product – had reached Spit Berdyansk, about 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Kerch Strait. It polluted an area 14 1/2-kilometer (9-mile) long, wrote Gov. Yevgeny Balitsky posted in Moscow on Telegram.
Russian-appointed officials in the Crimea-affiliated Moscow declared a regional crisis last weekend after oil was found on the shores of Sevastopol, the largest city on the peninsula, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Kerch Strait.
In response to Putin's call for action, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi accused Russia of “starting to show its alleged (only) concern” after the scale of the mass -disaster being too obvious to hide the dire consequences. “
“Russia's practice of first ignoring the problem, then admitting that it is unable to solve it, and finally leaving the entire Black Sea region with the consequences is another proof on its international irresponsibility,” Tykhyi said on Friday.
The Kerch Strait is an important worldwide shipping route, providing access from the inner Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. It has also been a major point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow attached to the peninsula in 2014.
In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of illegally trying to control the region. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, described the oil spill last month as an “environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.
