Dec. 28, 2024, 2:59 p.m.
(The coast of Sudak is polluted with fuel oil. Photo: Krym.Realii)
Since the beginning of the work to eliminate the consequences of the tanker disaster in the Kerch Strait, about 37 thousand tons of oil products have been collected.
According to Crimea.Realii, this information was published by the occupation Ministry of Emergency Situations of Crimea.
"An installation designed to pump out oil products from sunken tankers was delivered to the Azov-Black Sea Fleet," the media quoted the Russians as saying.
They also said that an oil slick was found near Lake Tobechytske in the annexed Crimea. No other details have been reported yet.
Lake Tobechytske is a drainless salt lake (estuary) in Crimea, located on the southeastern coast of the Kerch Peninsula, in the Leninsky district. It is separated from the Kerch Strait by an embankment. It is part of the Kerch group of lakes. In modern conditions, it is a shallow, summer-drying, hyperhaline body of water, the area of which is not used for economic purposes.
The accident in the Kerch Strait became known on December 15. The shipwreck occurred near Cape Panagia in the Temryuksky district of Krasnodar Territory, in the southwest of the Taman Peninsula, 12 kilometers from the village of Taman. It is the eastern entrance to the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea. According to official data, both tankers could have been carrying about 8,000 tons of oil products.
The fuel oil spill from two Russian tankers in the Black Sea caused a large-scale environmental disaster, with damages estimated at more than $14 billion. And this amount may increase after the data on the consequences of the pollution is clarified.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine reported that fuel oil from the sunken tankers will reach the territories of nature reserves and open waters of the Black Sea by the end of the year. According to their information, the pollution may reach the Opuk Nature Reserve, Cape Takil Landscape Park, and the open waters of the Black Sea.
Over the past week, at least 10 animals have died as a result of oil spills after two Russian tankers crashed. Ukraine has already appealed to the Secretariat of the Commission for the Protection of the Black Sea from Pollution to hold an extraordinary meeting. The participants are to organize an independent examination to assess the state of the waters, bottom sediments, and marine ecosystem. They are also preparing appeals to international organizations such as the UN, the European Union, UNESCO, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
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