Environmentalists said an oil-product spill in the Black Sea likely came from a shadow fleet vessel

Environmentalists said that an oil-product spill in the Black Sea likely came from a shadow fleet vessel

The vessel Sofia, sailing under the Russian flag, was likely the cause of a large oil-product slick that was discovered near Anapa late last week, Igor Shkradyuk, a representative of the environmental project Transparent World, told the BBC Russian Service.

The spill of crude oil or heavy fuel oil was detected with the help of a Sentinel-1 satellite; it occurred on the evening of April 7. A week later, by April 14, the oil slick covered more than 200 square meters, and the slick had begun breaking into sections. Wind carried part of the pollution toward the Utrish nature reserve.

Three vessels from the Marine Rescue Service were deployed to clean up the Black Sea after the oil-product spill, Igor Shkradyuk said. According to him, that is not enough to collect a significant portion of the spill.

According to preliminary estimates, 300-350 tons of oil products may have entered the sea. About 28 tons of oil-containing mixture were collected from the water’s surface, the BBC writes.

The Krasnodar Krai operational headquarters claimed that the oil-product spill may have been caused by Ukrainian drone strikes on civilian vessels in the Black and Azov seas. Waterfowl were killed or injured because of the oil-product spill.

@meduzalive