Russia: Black Sea oil spill volunteers call on Putin for more help

CNN
—

Volunteers helping to clean up the oil spill on Russia’s Black Sea coast are appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more help as they grapple with environmental devastation across more than 35 miles of coastline.

Two Russian tankers carrying thousands of tons of fuel were badly damaged in stormy weather near the Black Sea earlier this month, leading to an oil spill, according to Russian state media. According to TASS, the tankers were carrying more than 9,000 tons of oil, much of which spilled into the Kerch Strait between the Russian mainland and annexed Crimea.

Putin last week described the spill as an “environmental disaster”.

At least 3,700 tonnes of heavy oil was spilled, although the actual amount may be higher, according to Greenpeace Ukraine. Video from the scene showed black waves washing the heavy fuel oil known as mazut onto rocky shores. In one video, a bird – its wings thick with oil – could be seen trembling in distress as it was hit by waves, unable to lift its wings and fly away.

In a video message to the Russian president and prime minister on Tuesday, volunteers said local authorities in Russia’s Krasnodar region did not have the means to clean up the oil spill.

“The local authorities are not coping, they do not have the resources for this. The only resource is ordinary people with shovels, such a disaster cannot be defeated with shovels!” a volunteer said in the video as they requested that federal resources and specialists be sent to the area. They also appealed to send foreign specialists and warned that the scale of the pollution will have an international impact.

“It was recently announced that 5,000 volunteers and rescuers are working to remove the consequences. We believe that in such a large disaster area, even 50,000 people with shovels are not able to solve the problem and save the situation,” the volunteer added.

On Thursday, Putin suggested that the captains of the vessels were to blame for the incident. “Why do I say this is a big disaster and a disaster? Because almost 40% of the fuel has leaked,” he said, adding that efforts to recover the ships were hampered by the ongoing storm.

Russia’s Investigative Committee will open a criminal case into the incident, Russian state media TASS reported.