Two Russian oil tankers suffered separate accidents today in the Kerch Strait and spilled oil into the waters of the Sea of Azov, where a strong storm had broken out, the country’s Ministry for Emergency Situations reported this Sunday.
These are the vessels ‘Bolgoneft 212’, which ran aground after suffering damage to the bow, and ‘Bolgoneft 239’, which is adrift, as reported by this institution on its Telegram social network channel.
Both ships were built more than 50 years ago and have suffered irreparable damage that prevents them from sailing and reaching port, and which could cause them to sink in the Sea of Azov, which bathes both Russian and Ukrainian territory.
On the first of the freighters there were fourteen crew members, of whom thirteen have already been rescued and one has lost his life, the emergency services told the Russian agency RIA Novosti. This ship broke in two about 8 kilometers from the coast, after which it began to spill oil into the sea, as can be seen in a video published by local authorities.
Two tow boats and two Mi-8 helicopters are involved in the rescue operations of both tankers, the second of which would have another 14 sailors on board. In the case of the second, the ‘Bolganeft 239’ drifted for several hours and finally ran aground about 80 meters from the coast in the Krasnodar region.
The cause of the shipwrecks could have been both the strong gusts of wind prevailing in the area and the strong waves, inclement weather that would have caused a navigation error by the crew.
Official sources confirmed that, due to the accident, there has already been a spill of petroleum products in the Azov, under the control of the Russian army since 2022. Both 130-meter-long oil tankers would carry a total of, according to preliminary sources, about 8,000 tons of fuel. .
A brigade of specialists has been sent to assess the risk of contamination in the area bordering the Crimean peninsula and take the necessary measures to stop the spill.
Putin orders the creation of a special group to clean up the spill
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a working group to liquidate the consequences of the oil spill in the Kerch Strait after the accidents suffered by the two oil tankers.
“The working group will be in charge of organizing rescue efforts and also liquidating the consequences of the fuel spill,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the local press.
The group will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Vitali Saveliev and will include the Ministers of Emergency Situations and Natural Resources and Ecology.
The latter Ministry reported that it is currently assessing the magnitude of the contaminated surface that, according to experts, could reach the beaches in the area and damage the ecosystem of the coast near the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia. illegal in 2014.
Environmentalists consulted by the press warn that if the black spot reaches the coast, the levels of pollution and its severity will be even greater, although the emergency services, they warn, must also avoid the sinking of ships at all costs.
In fact, Ukraine has been warning about a possibility like this since October. The country warned of the growing environmental risk posed to Europe by hundreds of old, uninsured oil tankers used by Russia to evade sanctions on crude oil exports, and proposed several ways to mitigate the risks.
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