After thousands of tons of oil spilled into the sea and polluted an area of 50 km along the coast, Russia has expanded its clean-up campaign. The incidents occurred after oil tankers capsized in a storm.
An old Russian oil tanker had broken up and sunk, while another was stranded in the strait between the Azov and Krishna seas between Moscow-annexed Crimea and the Krasnodar region of southern Russia.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said on Wednesday (December 18) that it was working to clean 49 kilometers of beaches from the Anpa resort in the north to the port of Temruk, and to patrol a total of 70 kilometers of beaches.
The two tankers were carrying around 9,000 tonnes of oil and satellite monitoring showed around 3,000 tonnes of oil had leaked, state news agency Tass reported.
Citing Crimean marine researcher Sergei Stanichny, Tass reported that satellite images showed oil still leaking from the sunken tanker. Strong winds are pushing the oil towards the coast of southern Russia.
The seaside resort of Anapa, with a population of about 90,000, has declared a state of emergency. The Russian Emergencies Ministry said the number of volunteers and emergency workers had risen to 2,700. They were scooping up the black oil from the beach using plastic bags and excavators.