In the oil spill zone in the Black and Azov Seas, repeated releases of fuel oil from sunken tankers are being recorded. Fuel clots are also observed at a depth of up to 150 meters. They are regularly thrown onto the sea surface, while new foci of pollution are being formed.

As is known, two Volgonaft tankers with fuel oil crashed in the Kerch Strait on December 15 last year - according to the main version, due to a storm. As a result of the tanker disaster, a spill of oil products occurred. According to Russian media, Volgonaft-212 was transporting 4,300 tons of fuel oil. Russian media claim that approximately the same amount of oil products was on board Volgonaft-239.

Ukrainian Energy found out what is happening now in the Black and Azov Seas.

Mission Impossible

Ihor Shkradyuk, coordinator of the industry greening program at the Center for Wildlife Conservation, believes that we will have to fight fuel oil emissions for another six months. Satellite images show that petroleum products continue to leak from parts of the sunken tankers that have not yet been pumped out, the ecologist said. Repeated emissions, he said, will continue at least until the summer, when heated water will “push” fuel oil from the bottom.

“The contaminated water area is large. There are places where no cleaning procedures have been carried out, since there is no access to equipment. In some areas, repeated emissions are currently taking place. This is the Volgoneft-239 tanker, which sank near the coast. I worked on it at the stern. And according to satellite images, there is still pollution from one of the sunken fragments,” said Vladimir Kalyaev, a Russian expert and head of the Skoltech development project group, who is participating in the rescue operation.

The scientific director of the Russian Institute of Water Problems, academician Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, is surprised by the behavior of the Russian authorities in this situation.

“For a week, except for volunteers who appeared literally on the third day, there was no one there. For a week, no one woke up there at all - neither in the administration of the Krasnodar Territory, nor in the Ministry of Emergencies. This is strange. We held a press conference on the fifth day. This was the first public event in general. As for the people who began to work systematically there “on duty”, and not at the call of the heart, then this happened at best very sluggishly, with completely insufficient strength only on the 9th-10th day,” he says.

According to Danilov-Danilyan, there was a similar accident in Singapore (in June 2024, 400 tons of fuel spilled during a collision between two ships).

“Singapore is not like Anapa, of course, but after 15 minutes the first patrol ship was on the scene, and after a few hours 11 specialized vessels arrived. We did not have a single ship in the first two weeks,” the ecologist explained.

Danilov-Danilyan claims that the spill of several thousand tons of fuel oil in the Black Sea has become the “largest environmental disaster” in Russia since the beginning of the 21st century.

“This is the first time fuel oil has been spilled in such large quantities. In my opinion, this is the most serious environmental disaster in Russia since the beginning of the 21st century. That is, this is an unprecedented event,” Danilov-Danilyan said.

According to him, this situation cannot be compared with the diesel fuel spill in Norilsk in 2020, since in that case everything was “locally and quickly eliminated.”

What happened in the Black Sea is a “terrible blow” to the ecosystem, the academician emphasized. "The death of tens of thousands of birds, many dolphins, great losses in coastal flora and fauna. In such an environment, even if it is in salt water, practically nothing can live, except for microorganisms that feed on fuel oil and decompose it," the academician explained. He also noted that the removal of at least 200-500 thousand tons of contaminated soil will not pass without a trace: there have already been registered places where, due to the removal of soil where fuel oil got, the sea came out onto land by 30-50 meters. According to him, the pollution will affect not only Russia - by the end of January it may reach Odessa, approach the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria, and in the southeast of the sea to Turkey.

At the same time, Danilov-Danilyan refused to predict how long it will take to clean the Black Sea from fuel oil.

"Having sunk to the bottom at a depth of more than 200 m, where there is a hydrogen sulfide layer, fuel oil can lie there for a very long time. But we must be prepared for the fact that it can be lifted by upward currents. Constant monitoring of resort shores is necessary, and only when we are convinced that the appearance of new emissions of fuel oil clots from the sea is becoming an extreme rarity, this activity can be weakened," the academician noted.

According to estimates by Sergey Ostakh, a member of the scientific and expert council of the All-Russian Society for Nature Protection, it will take more than three years to fully dispose of the pollution of the Black Sea region.

Fuel oil clots pose a serious threat to benthos - an ecological community of organisms living on the bottom. Benthos includes bacteria, plants, invertebrates, mollusks, crustaceans, polychaete worms, etc. Fuel oil clots block the access of oxygen to the bottom, disrupt the normal life of organisms and cause their mass death. In addition, fuel oil fractions dissolved in water have a negative effect on zooplankton and phytoplankton, which are the main source of food for small fish. This impact can cause a chain reaction that will lead to significant disruptions in the food chain and catastrophic consequences for the ichthyofauna of the Black Sea. As scientists emphasize, a violation of the ecological balance even on a small scale can have unpredictable consequences, so this situation requires global attention.

A major ecocide

In general, even Russian experts – scientists, volunteers, rescuers and ecologists – are sure that the story of fuel oil and pollution will drag on.

After all, the tankers split into four fragments, and only one of them remained on the surface, having run aground near the shore. It is around it that the operation to pump out the remains of fuel oil and collect what has spilled is currently underway. The other three fragments of the two tankers remain at the bottom. And for each of them, it is necessary to carry out an operation to pump out, then lift, then clean up the fuel oil that will inevitably spill out during these measures.

And there remains fuel oil that has already settled to the bottom. How much of it – no one knows.

The situation is currently relatively stable due to the low water temperature, fuel oil is quite thick and lies at the bottom. But there is very little time until warming – in two or three months the heated fuel oil will begin to rise to the surface, and therefore there will be new emissions.

At the same time, mechanical methods of collection (sand collection and its removal) carry tangible risks - a strong change in the relief of the coastline, flooding or even collapse of beach infrastructure. A separate problem is sand, because on the Anapa beaches it is unique in its dimensions, it cannot simply be scooped up from the sea or a nearby quarry.

The list of emerging problems is getting longer, and for each of them - difficult and complex solutions, resources and most importantly - time, because the further - the more new problems will arise as a result of the previous unresolved ones.

In theory, it is necessary to create a permanent structure at the federal level, because now simply cleaning up fuel oil (which is still very far away) will not do - it will still be necessary to eliminate the consequences and recultivate vast areas. But, most likely, after the completion of the work (and it is unlikely to be complete), the Ministry of Emergencies will be closed and everything will be transferred to the regional and local levels.

The federal center is not interested in environmental disasters right now - after all, all resources, forces and focus of attention are thrown at the seizure of Ukrainian territory and the murder of peaceful Ukrainians.

Meanwhile, Russians are massively refusing trips for children to Anapa after the fuel oil spill.

Children's holidays in Anapa are under threat of disruption due to large-scale pollution of beaches and the Black Sea with fuel oil. Managers of sanatoriums and camps complain about the mass return of trips. According to sales department employees, Russians do not want to send their children to the dangerous coast. Companies that bought trips to encourage employees are also asking for a refund. The owners of health resorts want to save the situation by installing swimming pools, but are not sure that they will have enough funds for this. According to them, the state does not provide assistance.

The information was confirmed in the State Duma. Reservations for places in children's health resorts and camps in Anapa for the summer have fallen by 40%, said Nina Ostanina, the head of the family protection committee. According to her, most of the refusals come from large state-owned enterprises. In this regard, Ostanina received an appeal from local officials and the Minister of Labor and Social Development of the Krasnodar Territory, who asked her to "influence" state corporations so that they would not "disrupt the children's health campaign." The deputy said that the fears of Russians are understandable, but the authorities are also right, since the organization of recreation in camps is "a huge layer of educational work." She suggested that such institutions in Anapa and the Temryuk district be allocated subsidies from the federal budget, which could be spent on installing swimming pools.

Fuel oil does not dissolve in water: at low temperatures it settles to the bottom, and with the arrival of heat it rises to the surface. If the skin is not cleaned in time, burns, allergies or eczema may occur. Inhalation of fuel oil vapors can cause dizziness, weakness, headaches and even death. Children can accidentally swallow fuel oil - for example, while swimming in the sea, which can lead to poisoning.

Alexander Kotov, a partner at the Russian consulting group NEFT Research, believes that the recurrence of such accidents is simply guaranteed, given the existing quality of regulation and control in the industry. It is simply a matter of time. Only a radical change in the approach to regulation, control, and increased responsibility for violations of the rules for the transportation of dangerous goods can eliminate this factor.

Not only the Black Sea

Meanwhile, fuel oil emissions after the accident with Russian tankers were first recorded on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov - this time we are talking about the Krasnodar Territory in the Russian Federation. This is reported in pro-Russian media.

“Fraction fuel oil is being cleaned up on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov in the Slavyansky District. In the area of ​​the Kuchugury tract, small pieces of fuel oil and lumps of algae mixed with petroleum products were found on the shore,” the Telegram channel of the operational headquarters of the Krasnodar Territory reported.

The occupation authorities of the Kherson region note that there were no emissions on the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov before, and now the beach monitoring zone has been expanded to 265 km.

The Sea of ​​Azov washes the territory of Ukraine, in particular Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and in the East - the Russian Federation (Rostov region and Krasnodar region).

The cargo of fuel oil itself, which was transported by the tanker "Volgoneft-212", which suffered an accident in the Black Sea, was intended for loading onto the ship Firn, DW reports.

Such conclusions were made by the working group on assessing the impact of the war on the environment, the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group (UWEC).

Previously, the tanker Firn is part of the Russian "shadow fleet". According to the conclusions of environmentalists, the ship "Volgoneft-109", which sent a distress signal on December 17, but managed to be saved from a storm at anchor in the port of Kavkaz, was also heading towards the tanker. On the day of the accident, the Volgoneft-212 was in the transshipment area of ​​the same port.

Two months before the accident, the Firn tanker was used in exercises by the STS Trans company on the transshipment of oil products from small tankers to a storage tanker. According to a UWEC employee, the exercises were held in the same place where the Volgoneft-212 crashed on December 15.

As we can see, the Kremlin is not concerned about the ecocide and significant losses from the disaster, moreover, it actively continues to use the outdated shadow fleet, so the situation could repeat itself anywhere in the world.

Olena Marchenko, specially for Ukrainian Energy