3 saat önce

Russia scrambles to clean oil spill as it contaminates Black Sea beaches

Two tankers ran aground in the Black Sea, leading to a major oil spill that has contaminated beaches and threatened marine life.

Reuters

The incident has led to the contamination of beaches and marine life, prompting urgent cleanup efforts from Russian authorities. / Photo: Reuters

Russia has expanded an operation to clean up thousands of tonnes of oil that spilt into the sea and contaminated 50 kilometres of beaches after tanker ships were wrecked in a storm.

An ageing Russian oil tanker broke up and sank and another ran aground Sunday in a strait linking the Azov and Black Seas, between Moscow-annexed Crimea and southern Russia's Krasnodar region, known for its beach resorts.

Russia's emergencies ministry said on Wednesday it was working on cleaning up 49 kilometres (30 miles) of beaches from the resort of Anapa north to the port of Temryuk, and patrolling a total of 70km of beaches.

The two tankers were carrying around 9,000 tonnes of oil and satellite monitoring suggests around 3,000 were spilt, TASS state news agency reported.

Satellite images showed that oil is still leaking out of the sunk tanker, TASS reported on Wednesday, citing Crimean marine researcher Sergei Stanichny, with strong winds pushing the oil towards southern Russia's beaches.

Russian Telegram channels report that mazut fuel from the sank vessels has reached the central beach of Anapa, Krasnodar region of Russia.

Here, pieces of if lie on the sand. According to reports in Russian media, on the other beaches, there is a 30 centimeters layer of fuel. https://t.co/w6nj7x5WuS pic.twitter.com/bSkQ3VgkNP
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) December 18, 2024

Volunteers involved in cleaning process

The beach resort of Anapa, with a population of around 90,000 people, on Tuesday declared a state of emergency.

The number of volunteers and emergency workers "has increased to 2,700", the emergency situations ministry said on Wednesday.

They were shovelling up black oil from beaches and removing it in plastic sacks and digger trucks.

It said they had collected about 80 tonnes of oil and cleaned up more than eight kilometres (five miles) of beach.

Among those taking part were around 400 Cossacks, a group of people living in the steppes of Russia and Ukraine, Anapa's mayor's office said.

Volunteers in the city were working to remove oil from birds at a rescue point, TASS reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova appealed for volunteers on her Telegram channel, saying "Anapa is battling the oil spill and trying to save beaches.

Those famous beaches with golden sand that hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to each year".