Environmental organizations and Ukrainian authorities are flagging a major environmental disaster after Sunday’s accident in the Kerch Strait off the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
In the heavy storm, one Russian tanker was broken in half and another ran aground. One crewman died and of the combined cargo of more than 9,000 tons of oil, around 3,000 tons are said to have leaked into the sea, Russian authorities confirmed to the Russian state-controlled news agency Tass.
According to the authorities, work must be started to capture the oil.
The ships, which were both over 50 years old, were not made to travel on the open sea, notes Niklas Granholm, research leader at the unit for security policy and strategy at the Total Defense Research Institute, FOI.
– They are built primarily for inland waterways and river traffic, he says.
52 new ships on the sanctions list
By putting older ships into service, Russia has circumvented US and EU sanctions and continued to export oil and gas. In an attempt to stifle trade, the EU decided on Monday to add 52 new ships from Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” to the sanctions list.
In many cases, the outdated ships also pose pure environmental threats. According to Niklas Granholm, there are risks of a similar oil accident also in the Baltic Sea, where many ships from the “shadow fleet” are currently based.
– You can draw a clear parallel between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea region, he says.