Cleanup efforts in the Kerch Strait near Russian-occupied Crimea continued on Sunday, a week after at least 3,700 tonnes of low-grade fuel oil spilled from two storm-hit Russian tankers.
More than 7,500 people, including many volunteers, rushed to rescue wildlife and clean up coastlines devastated by 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 of coastline, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported.
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Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said oil continued to wash up along the coast of Crimea despite announcing the night before that a clean-up operation had been successfully completed off the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russian authorities were still assessing the impact of the spill. A local scientist, Tatyana Beley, told Russian state media on Sunday that her team had discovered 11 dead dolphins whose airways were blocked by oil fuel.
According to the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, a rescue operation was launched last Sunday after the Volgoneft-212 ran aground and its bow was torn away during storm conditions. One sailor of the 13-member crew died, officials said. A second tanker, the Volgoneft-239, was also left damaged and adrift. Later it ran aground 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 of coastline, Greenpeace Ukraine said on Tuesday. The charity has not had a presence in Russia since 2023, when it was labeled an “undesirable organization” by the Russian government.
Some Russian media critical of the Kremlin, as well as Western media, quoted Russian volunteers as saying state support was inadequate in their fight against the oil spill. Some said they experienced headaches, nausea and vomiting after breathing in toxic fumes for hours.
The Kerch Strait separates the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia and is a major global shipping route providing passage from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
It was also a major point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula. In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, accusing Russia of illegally taking control of the area. 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 as a “major environmental disaster” of the war and called for additional sanctions against Russian tankers.
