Peskov says Putin oversees fuel spill cleanup in the Black Sea

The situation with the elimination of the consequences of the fuel spill in the Black Sea is under the attention of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on December 24.

Peskov called the incident an environmental disaster and noted that additional resources would be needed to eliminate the consequences.

The Kremlin spokesman also said that there are no plans to introduce an emergency situation regime (ES) at the federal level yet.

"Not yet. Everything will depend on the recommendations of specialists who are working on the ground," Peskov said in response to a related question.

Storm bias: what could have led to the tragedy in the Kerch Strait

The design of tankers built for river transportation was not designed for a sea storm

The tankers Volgoneft-212 andVolgoneft-239crashed in the Kerch Strait on December 15 due to bad weather. As a result of the incident there was a spill of oil products. 27 people were evacuated from both vessels, one person died. Two criminal cases were initiated over the incident, one of which was reclassified as more serious.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, on Putin's instructions, created a working group to coordinate work to eliminate the consequences of the emergency with tankers in the Kerch Strait.

December 23 in Kerch after the accident with tankers in the Black Sea introduced a state of emergency of a municipal nature. Then it became known that 54 km of the Black Sea coastline in the Krasnodar region should be cleaned from fuel oil pollution. December 22, volunteers and special services cleaned more than 39.7 km of coastline from oil products. On December 24, it was reported that more than 21,000 tons of fuel oil-contaminated soil was collected on the coasts of Kuban and Crimea.