Putin instructed to create a headquarters for emergency response at the site of the fuel oil spill
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- Putin instructed to create a headquarters for emergency response at the site of the fuel oil spill
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the fuel oil spill in the Black Sea one of the most serious environmental challenges in recent years during a meeting with members of the Russian government on Thursday, January 9.
"We cannot bypass one of the issues related to the environment. We are talking about the elimination of the consequences of the tanker wreck in the Black Sea and the spill of oil products," he said.
The Russian leader asked EMERCOM head Alexander Kurenkov to report on the progress of liquidation of the consequences of the oil product spill in the Kerch Strait.
"In the water area of the Kerch Strait, Morspassluzhba units have surveyed over 1.5 square kilometers over the past period, collected 25 tons of oily liquid," Kurenkov said.
In addition, continued the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in the port of Anapa specialists treated about 38 thousand square meters of water area and collected more than 14 tons of oil products. Also, an additional 364 thousand bags for contaminated soil were delivered to the territory of the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Crimea from the warehouses of Rosreserve, Kherson region, Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (LNR and DNR) and a reserve of rescuers and materials was created in case of deterioration of the situation.
Putin, for his part, expressed gratitude to the volunteers for their work on the emergency response, but said that efforts to minimize the damage were insufficient. He also instructed to create a headquarters in the Kerch Strait, which would work right at the site of the disaster and would be headed by heads and responsible employees of ministries and agencies.
"There are a lot of problems here, I repeat, both technical, financial and technological," the Russian president said.
The tankers Volgoneft-212 andVolgoneft-239crashed in the Kerch Strait due to bad weather on December 15, 2024. The incident resulted in a spill of oil products. 27 people were evacuated from both vessels, one person died. On Putin's instructions, a working group was set up to coordinate work to eliminate the consequences of the emergency.
On January 2, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Transport said that 2.4 thousand tons of oil products had fallen into the Black Sea after the tanker crash.
Later, on January 3, in Sevastopol at the entrance to Balaklava Bay found an oil slick, it was reported about the risk of advancement of fuel oil after the crash, which is fixed to the north along the Crimean coast. As part of the work of the operational headquarters organized "breakdown of the territory" to clean up traces of oil products. On the same day in Sevastopol declared an emergency situation regime (emergency situation) of regional character.
In addition, on January 5, oil slicks were found off the coast of Anapa, in the area of Kapsel Bay in Crimea and off the coast of the resort city of Yevpatoria.
