(AP) – Emergency response forces said Sunday that an oil spill in the Kerch Strait from two storm-ravaged tankers continues to spread a month after it was first discovered. Officials announced that it had arrived in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia.
The task force, which also includes Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Klenkov, announced on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin urged authorities to step up their response to the spill, calling it “one of the most serious environmental problems we have faced in recent years.” It was installed in response to a call. ”
Klenkov said the “most difficult situation” was occurring near the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, where fuel oil continued to leak into the sea from the damaged part of the Borgonevti-239 tanker.
Klenkov said the remaining oil would be pumped out of the tanker’s stern, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
More than 155,000 tons of contaminated sediment has been dumped in the Kerch Strait, which separates Russian-occupied Crimea and the Krasnodar region, since oil spilled from two tankers in a storm four weeks ago, the Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday. announced that it had been collected.
Russian officials in Ukraine’s part-Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya region said Saturday that mazut, a heavy, low-grade petroleum product, was found on the Berdyansk Spit, about 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Kerch Strait. announced that it had arrived. Moscow’s installed governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on Telegram that an area 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) long was contaminated.
Russian-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea announced a regional state of emergency over the weekend after oil was detected on the coast of Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city, about 250 kilometers from the Kerch Strait.
In response to President Putin’s call for action, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Heorghiy Tyky said Russia only expressed “concern” once the scale of the disaster became too obvious to hide its dire consequences. “He has begun to show an attitude that is considered to be inappropriate.”
“Russia’s method of first ignoring the problem, then admitting its inability to solve it, and finally leaving the entire Black Sea region to suffer the consequences is another evidence of international irresponsibility.” Tikki said Friday.
The Kerch Strait is an important global shipping route, providing a shipping route from the Inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. It is also a key point in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014.
In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, accusing Russia of trying to illegally seize control of the region. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.
Mykhailo Podlyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, described last month’s oil spill as a “massive environmental disaster” and called for further sanctions against the Russian tanker.
