Russia Expands Response to Biggest Black Sea Fuel Spill in Decades
In this photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, volunteers collect oil-soaked beach sand during a clean-up operation in Anapa, Russia.
Photographer: Alexey Maishev/Sputnik/AP PhotoThis article is for subscribers only.
Russia has formed a new government commission to coordinate clean up of the biggest spill of oil products in the Black Sea in recent history as the Kremlin continues to assess the full scale of the catastrophe.
Two tankers carrying a combined 9,200 metric tons of heavy fuel oil sank during a storm in the middle of December in the Kerch Strait, which separates mainland Russia from occupied Crimea. According to initial government estimates, at least 2,400 tons were spilled into the sea. Oil products are continuing to leak.