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Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/dpa/picture-alliance
The effects of the oil spill in the Black Sea are beginning to show on the coast of the country of Georgia and in the city of Yevpatoria on the western coast of Russian-occupied Crimea. Fuel oil stains on the beaches of Yevpatoria were reported by the head of the occupation administration, Alexander Yuriev.
“The emissions are sporadic in nature. The situation is constantly evolving due to wind and waves,” Yuriev commented.
The Georgian Black Sea coast is also suffering the consequences of the environmental disaster. According to Tbilisi Life, about a dozen dead birds with fuel oil stains and more than ten live ones covered with fuel oil were found on the morning of Jan. 7. However, heavy fuel oil stains have not yet been recorded on Georgian beaches.
This past December, two tankers of the Russian shadow fleet, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, were wrecked during a storm in the Kerch Strait near the Crimean coast. As a result, about 4,000 tons of heavy fuel oil leaked out of each tanker, creating a huge black slick on the sea surface.
As the independent publication IStories wrote, the tankers were transporting products for the company Rosneft.
Both vessels were built more than 50 years ago and are owned by Kama Shipping. In the 1990s, they were modernized for navigation in both rivers and seas, but the outcome proved problematic, as the Krymsky Veter Telegram channel reports. Punctures in the hulls of the ships caused by the impact of the waves, along with cracks at the seams, had already caused several accidents. This is not the first time that the company's vessels have lost stability in such conditions: its Volgoneft-139 tanker sank earlier under similar circumstances.