Russian fuel oil resurfaces in Odesa region

Inspectors of the State Ecological Inspectorate of the Southwestern District on the Black Sea coast in Odesa region have recorded contamination with a fuel oil-like substance.

This was reported in the press service of the inspectorate.

Given the nature of previous similar cases, a possible connection with the consequences of fuel oil leakage from Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 tankers cannot be ruled out.

State inspectors, in cooperation with experts from the Ukrainian Scientific Center for Marine Ecology (UkrSCME), have once again discovered the fact of fuel oil pollution of the Black Sea coast in the village of Zatoka. The contamination manifested itself in the form of dark stains on the sand, while in previous cases fuel oil was found in the form of dense clots. According to visual signs, the detected substance has a more viscous consistency.

The line of pollution along the coast is about one kilometer long. At the same time, no visual signs of pollution of the sea area were found - the pollution is localized only on the sandy part of the coast.

Earlier, environmentalists discovered a fuel oil plume on a sandy spoil near the Danube Biosphere Reserve in Odesa Oblast on October 20. At the time, the head of the Green Sheet organization, Vladislav Balynsky, explained that the source of the pollution was the Russian tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 that sank nine months ago, and fuel oil continues to leak out because the Russian authorities have not sealed the hulls underwater. With the onset of the fall storm season, these fuel oil leaks have even intensified.

The accident in the Kerch Strait became known on December 15. According to official data, the tankers could have been carrying about 8,000 tons of oil products. Later, environmentalists discovered areas contaminated with fuel oil on the coast near the village of Mykolayivka in the Serhiyivka community of Odesa Oblast. On January 29, utilities in Odesa Oblast began work to clean up the coast from oil pollution. Earlier, employees of the Tuzly Estuaries National Park found fuel oil on the park's coast, which they collected and handed over to Vladyslav Balynskyi's private laboratory.

Кирило Бойко