Russia-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea announced a regional emergency on Saturday, as oil was detected on the shores of Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city.
“Today a regional emergency regime has been declared in Sevastopol,” regional Gov.
“Let me emphasize: there is no mass pollution of the coastline in Sevastopol,” he wrote.
Krasnodar regional Gov.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, described the oil spill last month as a “large-scale environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.
After oil was found on the beaches of Sevastopol, the biggest city on the peninsula, Russian-appointed authorities in Moscow-occupied Crimea declared a regional emergency on Saturday.
Almost three weeks ago, two storm-damaged tankers spewed fuel oil into the Kerch Strait near eastern Crimea, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Sevastopol, which is located on the peninsula’s southwest.
The regional governor of Sevastopol declared a regional emergency regime today. On Telegram, Mikhail Razvozhaev posted.
According to Razvozhaev, local authorities and volunteers “promptly eliminated” the oil that was discovered on four beaches in the area.
He wrote, “I want to be clear that Sevastopol’s coastline is not mass-polluted.”.
Razvozhaev made his announcement ten days after one tanker ran aground and the other was left damaged and adrift in December, and after authorities in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region declared a region-wide emergency last week due to the fuel oil that was still washing up on the coastline. 15. .
Regional Gov. Krasnodar. Veniamin Kondratyev stated on Friday that over 5,000 workers were still engaged in the spill cleanup.
He posted on Telegram that since the initial spill, more than 86,000 tons of contaminated soil and sand have been cleared from the area’s coastline.
On December… According to the ministry’s estimate, mazut, a heavy, inferior oil product, may have contaminated up to 200,000 tons overall.
The oil spill has been referred to as an “ecological disaster” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “.”.
An essential international shipping route connects the inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait, which divides the Krasnodar region from the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Additionally, it has been a major source of contention between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula. Ukraine accused Russia of attempting to illegally take over the region in a 2016 case it brought against Moscow before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Russia closed the strait for a number of months in 2021.
An advisor to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, Mykhailo Podolyak, called for more sanctions on Russian tankers and called last month’s oil spill a “large-scale environmental disaster.”.
