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An emergency task force arrived in Russia\u2019s southern Krasnodar region on Sunday as an oil spill in the Kerch Strait from two storm-stricken tankers continues to spread a month after it was first detected, officials said.<\/p>\n
The task force, which includes Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov, was set up after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on authorities to ramp up the response to the spill, calling it \u201cone of the most serious environmental challenges we have faced in recent years.”<\/p>\n
The Emergencies Ministry said Saturday that over 155,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil had been collected since oil spilled out of two tankers<\/a> during a storm four weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula from the Krasnodar region.<\/p>\n See for yourself \u2014 The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Russian-installed officials in Ukraine\u2019s partially Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region said Saturday that the mazut \u2014 a heavy, low-quality oil product \u2014 had reached the Berdyansk Spit, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Kerch Strait. It contaminated an area 14 1\/2-kilometer (9-mile) long, Moscow-installed Gov. Yevgeny Balitsky wrote on Telegram.<\/p>\n Russian-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea announced a regional emergency last weekend after oil was detected<\/a> on the shores of Sevastopol, the peninsula\u2019s largest city, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Kerch Strait.<\/p>\n In response to Putin\u2019s call for action, Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi accused Russia of \u201cbeginning to demonstrate its alleged \u2018concern\u2019 (only) after the scale of the disaster became too obvious to conceal its terrible consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRussia\u2019s practice of first ignoring the problem, then admitting its inability to solve it, and ultimately leaving the entire Black Sea region alone with the consequences is yet another proof of its international irresponsibility,\u201d Tykhyi said Friday.<\/p>\n The Kerch Strait is an important global shipping route, providing passage from the inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula<\/a> in 2014.<\/p>\n In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of trying to seize control of the area illegally. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.<\/p>\n Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s office, described the oil spill last month as a \u201clarge-scale environmental disaster\u201d and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nTrusted news and daily delights, right in your inbox<\/h3>\n