Storms, floods and disasters for Black Sea beaches

When a 28-year-old volunteer named Nikolai jumped on a beach on Russia’s Black Sea coast in a hazmat suit just before New Year’s, he was shocked by the amount of film of oil so thick that it almost breaks down.

He and other volunteers were tasked with removing the oil-filled sand, but “the scale was too big,” he said.

Two weeks into the new year, and four months after the spill, President Vladimir V. Putin acknowledged the scale of the disaster and dispatched top officials to deal with Russia’s biggest oil spill of the year. many, which have damaged some of the most popular beaches in the country.

The oil was released by two old Russian tankers that were damaged during a strong storm in the Kerch Strait on December 15. At least 2,400 tons of oil were released into the sea, according to Russian authorities.

The disaster in the strait, which separates the Crimean Peninsula from mainland Russia, has raised questions about whether it is part of the so-called shadow fleet that Moscow uses to evade sanctions on These vessels are used in the oil industry, sometimes using vessels in poor conditions.

One of the vessels, the Volgoneft-212, broke in two and sank, killing one crew member. Another, the Volgoneft-239, crashed near the port of Taman. The two ships were carrying 9,000 tons of heavy oil, and officials are now working not only to clean up the coast, but also to try to contain the spread of the stranded vessel.

Russian officials initially said the spill had been contained, but soon after the disaster, floating oil and birds were spotted along Russia’s Black Sea coast.

On Sunday, the government said it had set aside 1.5 billion rubles (about $15.3 million) for cleanup efforts, taking the money from its treasury. Three days earlier, Mr. Putin ordered a report on the state of Russian oil tankers, and also asked a deputy prime minister to review Russian laws on shipping oil by sea and rivers and monitor “progress -science for cleaning up similar hazards,” said the press office.

Last week, the Ukrainian Navy warned that oil from the spill could reach the Black Sea coast of Ukraine near Odesa and Mykolaiv, but the Ministry of Environment in Ukraine a day later that they did not see an immediate threat.

Nikolai was one of hundreds of volunteers involved in the cleanup. A businessman in Moscow, he watched news from photos and videos posted by residents and local officials, and went to the city of Anapa for a vacation as the new year approaches.

In a phone interview with The New York Times after he returned home, he said he spent a week cleaning up the oil that washed up on the beach. He asked that his last name not be used because he fears he may lose out on government contracts.

People and businesses volunteered to provide hazmat suits and some basic equipment for some volunteers, but the work was difficult.

“I saw the pictures before I came,” said Nikolai. “Yes, it looks bad — but it’s different when you see it in real life. You take the shovel and scoop up that black oil, and it’s like a drop in the ocean.”

The air on the coast was so heavy with oil fumes, Nikolai said, that he felt tired and weak when he went there without a respirator.

Cleanup crews responded to the oil spill along nearly 500 miles of coastline, collecting more than 160,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil as well as 25 tons of “oily liquid,” Russia’s emergency ministry said on this week.

But the spill could become a “long-term environmental disaster,” according to Greenpeace Ukraine, which criticized the Russians’ slow response and warned of a deadly impact on marine life.

Environmentalists say cleaning up the spill is difficult because of the tanks’ cargo. Heavy oil, unlike normal lubricating oil, does not stay on the surface of the water, but sinks to the bottom.

“If it is not quickly removed from the surface, it will wait until it is destroyed by microorganisms in the sea,” said Natalia Gozak, director of the Greenpeace Ukraine office. “It could take decades.”

The lack of an immediate response means that large amounts of contaminated sand need to be removed, especially from parts of the beach around Anapa, according to Georgy Kavanosyan, a Russian independent defender. the environment and hydrogeologist arrived at the site two days after the spill. .

“The oil started sinking into the sand on the first day because there were not enough responders,” Mr. Kavanosyan said.

Satellite images released by Mr. Kavanosyan showed two long spots near the collapsed tank, indicating an oil spill after two small earthquakes in the area last week. of the week.

“That ship is a ticking bomb,” he said. “The most important thing right now is to drain that oil and get the ship off the ground.”

Officials said that most of the oil from the spill had been collected last Monday.

When Mr. Putin finally addressed the disaster, he described it as “one of the biggest environmental challenges we have faced in recent years.”

Mr. Putin ordered senior officials to oversee the effort. A task force was set up this month to bring together several ministers to plan for cleanup and rehabilitation, as well as the removal of the tanks.

The impact of the oil spill on wildlife remains to be seen.

At least 58 dolphins have been found so far, the Delfa Dolphin Rescue and Research Center said in a statement on Saturday. The group sent a team down to sea last Friday to approach the sunken tanker and confirm reports that oil was still bubbling inside.

“The pollution was all over the road,” he said. “Only five kilometers from the coast, common dolphins and porpoises were swimming in a film of oil and a small part of the oil, which is regrettable and surprising to us.”

At least 6,000 oiled birds have been caught and cleaned by volunteers, but many will not survive, experts say. The spill could kill tens of thousands of birds in the area, Greenpeace Ukraine said.

Russian oil companies have always resorted to using damaged oil tankers that are not controlled by Western companies or covered by insurance.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have suggested the two 50-year-old tanks are part of Russia’s shadow fleet, which emerged after Western countries moved to punish Moscow. economic because of the attack on Ukraine.

But Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who has written several articles on shadow planes, said the ships are “old tankers” that lack many of the characteristics of shadow ships, which often operate in of the Baltic Sea and goes under the ship. another flag.

All of the tanks involved in the spill were Russian-owned, and one of them had its license suspended and should not be allowed to run, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

Questions were also raised as to why the tanks, originally designed for river navigation, were allowed to go to sea in winter storms.

Cassandra Vinograd contributed to the report from Kiev, Ukraine.