The masters of the two aging river-sea tankers that broke up and spilled fuel in the Kerch Strait last weekend have been arrested and criminally charged, according to authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Both vessels were more than 50 years old, and the head of Russia's maritime trade union told state outlet TASS that they were never designed for the rough conditions of the Kerch Strait in a winter storm. "The problem with the Volgoneft type vessels has been known for a long time. These vessels are declared as 'river-sea' class, but in fact in Soviet times they were used for river shipping, at most with an exit to the bay at the river mouth. They were not intended for full-fledged sea shipping," said Yuri Kurnakov, chairman of Russia's Marine Trade Union. "This is far from the first such incident."
One of the two captains, Leonid Volegov, was reportedly hospitalized for ingestion of fuel oil after abandoning ship; he was taken directly from the hospital for police questioning, according to independent Russian news channel Baza. The channel reports that before the casualty, he had been asking the shipowner to get his vessel into port and unloaded because its boilers were failing and could not keep the cargo of mazut (heavy fuel oil) heated.
In a statement Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he had been informed that there were "mistakes by the captains" of the two ships.
"This is an environmental disaster. Law enforcement agencies are assessing what happened," Putin said. "I was told that, in their opinion, the ship captains violated the rules and did not take shelter."
The pollution has spread along the Russian coastline of the Black Sea from Anapa to Kuban, a distance of about 25 nautical miles. An estimated 2,000-10,000 seabirds have been affected by oiling, and the tourism season for the area's popular beaches could be disrupted. Cleanup operations are under way with assistance from about 4,000 local volunteers; the long-term outcome is uncertain, as some components of heavy fuel oil tend to settle on the bottom and stay for years.
Russian regional authorities reported on Tuesday that around 35km of coastline had been contaminated by oil after two ships were badly damaged by storms in the Kerch Strait .
— NoComment (@nocomment) December 19, 2024
A state of emergency has been declared in several districts. pic.twitter.com/Qf836Sct5i
