One of two damaged Russian oil tankers in the Kerch Strait, Russia 16 December 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/ Russian Ministry of Natural Resources

Oil that spilled into the Black Sea when two Russian tankers ran aground in the Kerch Strait on Saturday has begun to wash ashore, Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Tuesday morning, in comments reported by independent news outlet Meduza.

The oil, which Kondratyev said had washed up along an area of the shoreline “dozens of kilometres long”, has already taken its toll on local birdlife, according to footage posted by local residents.

Kondratyev added that over 260 people and 50 pieces of machinery from Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry had arrived at the scene to begin a clean-up operation.

According to the Emergency Situations Ministry, the two vessels, Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239, which were each carrying over 4,000 tons of oil, sustained serious damage after running aground in high winds in the Kerch Strait, which runs between Russian-occupied Crimea and Russia proper, connecting the Black Sea to the smaller Sea of Azov.

Paul Johnson of Greenpeace warned that the sinking of the two oil tankers, which were both over 50 years old, threatened to cause “one of the largest man-made disasters in Black Sea waters”.

Russian news agency TASS reported that some of the fuel tanks on the two tankers survived the vessels running aground undamaged, adding that although leaks from both tankers had now stopped, up to 3,000 tonnes of oil were thought to have spilled into the water.