Russian tanker accident: 10-square-kilometer oil spill detected near Kerch Strait

Svitlana Hrynchuk, Ukraine's Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, said this during the telethon.

A satellite image from Sentinel-1 captured a stain characteristic of oil pollution, covering an area of approximately 10 square kilometers. The spill was recorded in the waters near the entrance to the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea side, in the vicinity of the village of Volna in Russia's Krasnodar region.  

Another stain, about 28–30 kilometers south of Cape Opuk, was identified, covering around 3 square kilometers. Additionally, a significant amount of fuel oil reached the southern coast of Crimea, affecting birds in Koktebel, Alushta, Gurzuf, and the Anapa area.  

According to Hrynchuk, over nearly three years of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 7,100 instances of environmental damage have been recorded, with total losses exceeding UAH 3 trillion.

Two Russian oil tankers sank in the Black Sea's Kerch Strait

On December 15, two Russian tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, carrying fuel oil, broke in half in the Kerch Strait.

Following the incident, several dead dolphins washed ashore, and videos of polluted beaches circulated online.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russian leader Vladimir Putin has done nothing to prevent the Kerch Strait disaster.

The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation reported that Russian authorities have downplayed the scale of the ecological catastrophe caused by the oil spills.

Later, it was announced that Russian authorities ordered the sunken Volgoneft tankers to be recovered by June 16, 2025.