An emergency task force has been formed in Russia to tackle the spreading oil spill in the Kerch Strait, which has raised environmental concerns.
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is not happy about it. He called for a stronger response, saying this is one of the biggest environmental issues they’ve faced lately. The Emergencies Ministry reported that they’ve already collected over 155,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil since the spill began.
Things are getting messy, too. Officials in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine said that the heavy oil has reached the Berdyansk Spit, which is about 90 miles north of the strait. It’s contaminated a long stretch of land, about 9 miles long.
In Crimea, they declared a regional emergency after oil was found on the shores of Sevastopol, which is quite a distance from the strait. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, criticized Russia for only acting now that the spill is too big to ignore.
He pointed out that Russia often ignores problems until they can’t hide them anymore. The Kerch Strait is a crucial shipping route, linking the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea, and it’s been a hotspot for conflict since Russia took over Crimea in 2014.
Back in 2016, Ukraine even took Russia to court over this area, claiming they were trying to take control illegally. And in 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, called this spill a major environmental disaster and is pushing for more sanctions on Russian tankers.
