Environmental advocates are raising alarms about a possible ecological catastrophe caused by two Russian oil tankers that have run aground in Ukraine’s environmentally delicate waters off the Crimean coast, which is under Moscow’s control. According to local reports, thousands of tons of substandard fuel have leaked into a primary Black Sea shipping route.
The mishaps happened on December 15, causing the death of one sailor and the evacuation of 26 crew members from the vessels named Volgoneft-239 and Volgoneft-212. Authorities have blamed the incident on crew mistakes during rough weather, and they have found no evidence linking the disaster to Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Both tankers were carrying substantial loads of fuel oil. The Volgoneft-212 was reportedly transporting more than 4,000 tons of this heavy contaminant, potentially leading to one of the most significant environmental disasters in the Kerch Strait—a crucial shipping route.
On December 16, Russian state news agencies cited sources saying that approximately 3,700 tons of mazut, a low-grade heavy fuel oil, had poured into the water. Verified social media footage showed one tanker splitting in half, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether anything had leaked from the vessels.
Dr. Paul Johnston, head of Greenpeace Research Laboratories in the United Kingdom, warned that any oil or petrochemical spill in these waters could have severe consequences. He pointed out that prevailing wind and currents are likely to drive the spill, making containment extremely challenging under current weather conditions.
The vessels were roughly 7 kilometers from the shore in the Kerch Strait, between mainland Russia and Crimea, when they sent out distress signals. The Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, had a similar incident in 2007 when the Volgoneft-139 tanker split in half during a storm, resulting in a spill of over 1,000 tons of oil.
Greenpeace urged the Russian authorities to take all necessary steps to minimize the environmental impact of the oil spill and to cease the militarization of the region, returning Crimea to Ukraine’s rightful control.
Isaac Levi, a Russian energy sanctions expert at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) in London, predicted that the environmental impact of the two tankers’ sinking would be substantial. He estimated the cleanup cost could exceed $112 million if both tankers spilled all their oil products, and $64 million if only the one that broke apart did so.
Russia uses ‘shadow tankers’—vessels not owned or insured by Western entities—to bypass sanctions that prevent it from selling oil and oil products above a certain price cap. Levi emphasized the dangerous practices of these “shadow tankers” that transport Russian oil, which not only put maritime ecosystems and crews at risk but also burden taxpayers in countries that might have to fund cleanup efforts if a tanker has inadequate insurance coverage.
According to Krymsky Veter, a Telegram channel, the AIS transponder of the broken vessel, Vologneft-212, had been off since December 3. The AIS system provides positioning, identification, and other ship information to other vessels and coastal authorities.
The Russian government announced that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin had ordered a working group to coordinate the cleanup, while Natural Resources and Environment Minister Aleksandr Kozlov and other officials arrived at the site on December 16 to assess the situation.
