Russia forms emergency taskforce as oil spill continues to grow in southern region
Russia forms emergency taskforce as oil spill continues to grow in southern region
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An emergency task force arrived in Russia's southern Krasnodar region on Sunday as an oil spill in the Kerch Strait from two storm-stricken tankers continues to spread a month after it was first detected, officials said. The task force, which includes emergency situations minister Alexander Kurenkov, was set up after Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday called on authorities to ramp up the response to the spill, calling it "one of the most serious environmental challenges we have faced in recent years".
The emergencies ministry said on Saturday that more than 155,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil had been collected since oil spilled out of two tankers during a storm four weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula from the Krasnodar region.
Russian-installed officials in Ukraine's partially Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region said on Saturday that the mazut - a heavy, low-quality oil product - had reached the Berdyansk Spit, some 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of the Kerch Strait. It contaminated an area more than 14 kilometres (nine miles) long, Moscow-installed governor Yevgeny Balitsky wrote on Telegram.
Russian-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea announced a regional emergency last weekend after oil was detected on the shores of Sevastopol, the peninsula's largest city, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the Kerch Strait. In response to Mr Putin's call for action, Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi accused Russia of "beginning to demonstrate its alleged 'concern' (only) after the scale of the disaster became too obvious to conceal its terrible consequences".
