Two Russian Tankers Carrying Oil Products Crash, Sink In Kerch Strait

The fate of many sailors is unknown.

Two Russian cargo ships have sunk in the area of the Kerch Strait off the coast of Crimea annexed by the Russian Federation. This was reported by the Mash Telegram channel on Sunday, December 15. Earlier Russian news agencies with reference to the emergency services reported that two tankers were in distress. In turn, the Russian Emergencies Ministry told Interfax that the Volgoneft 212 tanker was damaged and ran aground, while the Volgoneft 239 was damaged and ‘went adrift,’ reports Deutsche Welle.

One of the main versions of the tankers' crash is the crew's mistakes in difficult weather conditions, Interfax reports. According to Mash, the hulls of both tankers ‘broke into two parts after the wave hit.’

As a result of the crash of the tankers there occurred ‘spillage of oil products’, reports RIA ‘Novosti’ with reference to Rosmorrechflot. According to the Baza channel, the two vessels were carrying a total of more than 8,000 tonnes of oil and fuel oil. Officials have not yet commented on the possible consequences of the oil product leak at sea.

13 Crew Members Missing, One Person Dead

There were 13 crew members on board the first vessel - ‘Volgoneft 212’, 12 of them were rescued, one person died, ‘Interfax’ reports citing a source in the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation. The second vessel, the Volgoneft 239, had 14 people on board.

Strong waves and bad weather conditions are observed in the water area where the incident took place, which complicates the rescue operation.

According to several channels, 13 sailors from both tankers remained in the water. Their fate is unknown.

Greenpeace: Oil Spill in the Strait Threatens Ecological Catastrophe

According to the Greenpeace international environmental organisation, each of the Russian tankers, more than 50 years old, could carry up to 5,000 tonnes of oil products. ‘If such a quantity of raw materials ends up in the sea, this accident will be one of the largest man-made disasters in the Black Sea,’ the organisation stressed in a commentary obtained by DW. The statement also pointed out that Russian tankers switched off their positioning system 12 days ago.

The environmental organisation called on the Russian authorities to ‘take all efforts to mitigate or reduce the environmental impact’. Greenpeace notes that in November 2007, another Russian tanker of the Volgoneft class crashed in the same place. The vessel was carrying 4,800 tonnes of fuel oil, about 1,600 tonnes then ended up at sea. ‘This accident resulted in the pollution of dozens of kilometres of coastline on both sides of the strait,’ the statement said.

The wrecked vessels were built in the 1980s. They were designed as river tankers with the possibility of limited access to coastal sea zones in calm weather conditions, but in the 1990s they were converted to the ‘river-sea’ class, The Moscow Times (MT) said. According to its assessment, the storm may have overloaded the hulls and the hulls simply failed. According to statistics, 1,097 people working on such tankers have already died in the last 30 years, MT reported.

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