Volunteers battle to clear spilled oil on Russia's Black Sea coast

21/12/2024 8:07

Volunteers struggled on Friday to shovel up tons of sticky oil from Russia's Black Sea coastline following what President Vladimir Putin has called an ecological disaster.



The oil spilled from two ageing Russian oil tankers that were severely damaged by a weekend storm in the Kerch Strait that separates southern Russia from Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. One of the vessels split in half, and a crew member was killed, while the other ran aground.



At the sea's edge, volunteers shovelled oil and blackened sand into white sacks to be taken away in trucks, as more viscous black tar drifted in on the waves.