Russian tankers are a threat due to financing war and harm to nature
The President of Ukraine emphasizes that Russia is doing nothing with fuel oil, which pollutes, including the coast of Crimea, as a result of the accident of old ships in the Black Sea
Russian tankers pose a full-scale threat – both in terms of financing the war and in terms of environmental damage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Monday evening, December 23.
"Now everyone is seeing the consequences of the disaster in the Black Sea - fuel oil polluting the coast. Russia is using extremely old vessels - 50 years old - it is using anything just to make money. This is a full-scale threat - both in terms of financing the war and in terms of harm to nature," the president said.
No sea, he said, deserves all this damage from the Russian presence.
"Now in the Black Sea, fuel oil is a problem of the people themselves, and Putin is doing nothing, he is only interested in his old "nutcrackers" and other madness. We must do everything possible to force Russia to make real peace and take responsibility for everything it has done as soon as possible," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.
On December 15, two Russian tankers carrying fuel oil – Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239 – suffered an accident in the Kerch Strait. As a result of the accident, a spill of petroleum products is recorded at sea.
On December 17, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Svitlana Hrynchuk, reported that preliminary losses from the accident of two tankers in the Kerch Bay could reach $14 billion.
Pollution of the coast with fuel oil is most observed in Anapa and the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation.
Earlier, the Russian Emergencies Ministry unit in annexed Crimea reported that oil slicks were found in one area in the Leninsky district of the peninsula and in seven areas in the Kerch region, DW reports.
As reported by "Ukrainian Energy", on December 16, the EU Council of Foreign Ministers adopted the 15th package of sanctions against Russia, which was previously agreed upon at the level of ambassadors - permanent representatives of member states to the EU. It included, in particular, sanctions against more than 50 vessels of the Russian "shadow" fleet.
Later that day, 12 northern European states agreed on additional measures to combat Russia's "shadow" fleet, which transports oil and petroleum products in circumvention of sanctions imposed by Western countries.
