The oil slick has reached the shores of Feodosia, Alushta, and Sudak. This was reported by the Agency, citing satellite images from January 4, published by ecologist Georgiy Kavanosyan. The images show that the pollution reached Feodosia's port near the Takil Cape, located south of Kerch. Furthermore, the oil slick was recorded along a large stretch of coastline from the village of Partenit to Sudak, including the area near Alushta.
Kavanosyan notes that satellite images only show surface pollution. It remains unclear whether the oil is present at depth near these resort areas. M-100 grade oil, which leaked from tankers, solidifies and sinks to the bottom in low winter temperatures. It can only resurface after the water warms up to 25 degrees Celsius. In the summer, the Black Sea can warm up to such temperatures up to a depth of 20 meters. Meanwhile, in the coastal zone of Anapa and the southern part of the Kerch Peninsula, the depth does not exceed 20 meters, explained the ecologist.
On January 3, oil stains were discovered in Sevastopol and the Yalta area. The next day, a regional emergency situation regime was declared in Sevastopol. The state of emergency has been in effect across the rest of annexed Crimea since December 28.
The oil spill occurred on December 15 in the Kerch Strait, when the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 sank due to a storm. By December 17, the pollution had reached the coast of Anapa and the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar region. Russian Investigative Committee Head Alexander Bastrykin instructed to initiate a criminal case for the delayed response to the disaster.
On January 5, the first signs of the ecological disaster were recorded on Georgia's coastline. A bird covered in oil was found in the village of Ureki. However, ecologist Georgiy Kavanosyan states that this does not necessarily indicate the spread of pollution to Georgia, as birds covered in oil can fly up to 300 kilometers from the accident site.
According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, around 2.4 thousand tons of oil spilled into the Black Sea as a result of the accident. The two tankers were carrying a total of about 9.2 thousand tons of oil products. Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratiev reported that by the evening of January 2, more than 78 thousand tons of contaminated sand had been removed from the beaches of Anapa and the Temryuk district. The Moscow-appointed "Governor" of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, announced on January 5 that about 18 tons of oil-contaminated soil had been collected from the city's beaches.
