Russia’s Black Sea beaches flooded with oil from two wrecked tankers as Greenpeace points to rising risks from Moscow’s “shadow fleet”

Emergency workers and volunteers pictured during the cleanup of spilled fuel oil on a beach near the village of Blagoveshchenskaya, Dec. 18, 2024. Photo: Sergei Malgavko / TASS

The fuel oil spill caused by the wreck of two Russian tankers last Sunday has polluted dozens of kilometers of sandy beaches along the country’s southern coast.

The spill occurred after two tankers — the Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239 — were wrecked in the Kerch Strait amid stormy weather conditions on Sunday, Dec. 15.

As reported by the BBC Russian Service, Volgoneft-212 split in half at 08:57 AM, with its bow separating from the rest of the vessel. It ran aground 8 kilometers off the shore near Cape Takil. Close to four hours later, the ship’s stern had sunk, resulting in the death of one crew member.

Shortly after, at 10:20 AM, Volgoneft-239 was wrecked, drifting toward the shore near Cape Panagia and running aground just 80 meters from the coast. The crew of Volgoneft-239 was only evacuated on Monday morning, as the rescue operation was halted overnight due to severe weather conditions.

The vessels were carrying a combined 9,200 tons of fuel oil, with close to half of it — 3,700 tons — leaking out into the Black Sea, according to a report from Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

By the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 18, oil slicks and a distinct smell were reported on the central beach in the Russian coastal town of Anapa. These were corroborated by videos and eyewitness accounts shared on social media.

Clean-up efforts are currently underway across Krasnodar Krai, with hundreds of residents taking to beaches to remove fuel-soaked sand and clean local wildlife — such as cormorants and grebes — affected by the spill.

Environmental activists reported the death of a dolphin near Anapa earlier today. “Unfortunately, this young Azov dolphin could not avoid getting caught in the fuel oil,” wrote Delfa, a marine wildlife protection center.

Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported on Wednesday that the length of the oil-contaminated coastline had grown to 49 kilometers. The day before, authorities estimated the affected area at 35 kilometers — meaning the figure had increased by almost 50% in just 24 hours.

Natalia Gozak, office director of international NGO Greenpeace’s branch in Ukraine, said the wreckage pointed to a much broader risk stemming from Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers.

“The accidents involving the two tankers in the Kerch Strait, both over 50 years old according to various reports, are serious, and the leaking fuel oil is now jeopardising the local ecosystem. The accident is a warning sign of a much bigger problem: the Russian shadow fleet. Russia uses this fleet of obsolete tankers to export crude oil and sponsor the war in Ukraine. These must be urgently added to the EU sanctions list.”

Since the imposition of a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian crude, the country has used its so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers to transport oil and evade sanctions. The vessels that make up this fleet are often poorly maintained and frequently lack proper insurance.

However, Michelle Bockmann, an analyst at shipping industry journal Lloyd's List noted in an interview with the BBC that the tankers involved in Sunday's incident did not appear to be part of that fleet.

A Russian ecologist who spoke to independent news outlet Agentstvo on the condition of anonymity noted that the consequences of the crash would be felt in the area for years to come. He cautioned that after the Nakhodka tanker sank near Japan’s Honshu coast in 1997, the island’s sandy beaches were unusable for several years. “This kind of fuel oil absorbs into the sand and is extremely difficult to remove. The beaches may look clean, but when the sun heats up, the fuel oil will evaporate,” the ecologist explained.

Both tankers involved in Sunday’s spills were built more than 50 years ago and were upgraded in the 1990s to meet the “river-sea” class. However, the modification proved problematic, reported local Telegram channel Krymsky Veter (lit. “Crimean Wind):

“It was all done in a rush. They cut out the center, threw it away, and then welded the stern and bow together, creating a massive seam in the middle. Today, that seam split apart after a powerful wave [hit the ship].”

In Soviet times, Volgoneft-type tankers were used exclusively for navigating rivers, Yuri Kurnakov, Chairman of Russia’s Maritime Trade Union, told state-run news agency TASS:

“The hulls of these vessels simply break apart in heavy seas.”

The independent Russian investigative outlet Important Stories gained access to the documents of the wrecked vessels, which revealed that the ships had been banned by a government regulator from entering the Kerch Strait during winter months. One of the tankers had reportedly been operating for two weeks without valid documentation.

In 2007, another Volgoneft-class tanker sank in the same location during a storm while carrying 4,800 tons of fuel oil. According to official data, 1,600 tons leaked into the sea at that time. The incident caused pollution across dozens of kilometers of shoreline on both sides of the Kerch Strait.

Earlier this year, Greenpeace Germany released a report identifying 192 of the most dangerous “shadow fleet” tankers, some of which had previously drawn attention for technical malfunctions and risky ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil. Prior to the release of the report, the NGO ran a study on the potential consequences of a “shadow fleet” tanker accident and oil spill near the German coast. It showed how such an incident could affect areas near the cities of Rostock, Lübeck and Kiel.