December 25, 2024

Cleaning up Kerch Strait Oil Spill


Cleaning up Kerch Strait Oil Spill
Tanker Volgoneft-212 in 2018. Alexxx1979, Wikimedia Commons.

Two ships, the Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, sank on December 15 in the Kerch Strait following a storm. Emergency services said the tankers carried about 9,200 tons of fuel oil, resulting in an oil spill that contaminated miles of shoreline and killed at least 11 dolphins and 125 birds.

Three hours after the incident, authorities began declaring states of emergency in local municipalities affected by the spill. By the end of that hour, emergency declarations were in place in seven populated areas, including the resort town of Anapa.

Emergency personnel from the regional Kuban-SPAS team and the Russian Emergencies Ministry arrived to collect oil along the Black Sea coast. A total of 267 people and 50 equipment units were deployed. On Saturday, December 21, the Russian Emergencies Ministry reported that 34 of the 54 kilometers (22 of the 33 miles) of affected coastline had been cleared, and 12,000 tons of contaminated sand had been collected.

However, according to the independent publication Agentstvo, it was not the emergency personnel, but volunteers who did the most work. They used shovels and scoops to handle the cleanup instead of bulldozers. Due to a lack of equipment, the filled bags were not always removed promptly and may have leaked oil back onto the sand.

A week after the sinking, authorities had yet to begin pumping out the remaining oil from the tankers, said Yevgeny Simonov, an ecologist and member of the international Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group. He noted that weather conditions would have allowed pumping operations to start, but no information on such work has been released. One tanker is aground near the coast, which Simonov said could make pumping the oil easier.

Satellite images taken Friday showed one of two oil slicks located not far from the shore near Anapa, covering an area of about 100 square kilometers (38 square miles). Ecologists from the Prozrachny Mir na Kaspy (Transparent World on the Caspian) project said the wind’s direction raises the likelihood of renewed coastal pollution near Anapa and possible new contamination in Crimea and Taman.

Russian officials have not yet issued an official estimate of the total damage. Ecologist Grigory Kavanovsyan said the spill’s impact could cost anywhere from R30 billion to R50 billion ($300 million to $500 million).

You Might Also Like

A Memory Battle, Won
  • December 22, 2024

A Memory Battle, Won

A statue to the founder of the Soviet secret police has been erected in Khabarovsk.
Ghost of Economy Future
  • December 15, 2024

Ghost of Economy Future

Russian analysts give their forecasts for what the economy might look like in early 2025.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955