Fuel oil on the coast of Odesa region: utilities start cleaning up near the Danube Reserve

Fuel oil on the coast of Odesa region. Photo: Ivan Rusev's Facebook page

Fuel oil removal has begun on the coast of Odesa region, near the Danube Biosphere Reserve.

This was reported by the head of the Lyman community Vasyl Reznichenko.

He noted that utility companies have started cleaning up oil products on the Black Sea sandbar along a part of the Dzhantsheiskyi Estuary and Lake Sasyk.

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«The oily sand will be subsequently transferred to a special institution for processing and restoration», Vasyl Reznichenko added.

Russian tanker accident

As a reminder, on 15 December 2024, near Cape Panagia in the Kerch Strait, the «Volgoneft» tanker ran aground, and 4 tonnes of fuel oil could have leaked into the sea. Later it became known that another tanker, the «Volgoneft-239», began to sink next. Its hull broke into two parts after being hit by a wave.

The leakage of fuel oil from two Russian tankers in the Black Sea caused a large-scale environmental disaster. The damage caused to the Black Sea ecosystem exceeds $14 billion.

Animal rights activists have recorded 32 deaths of cetaceans, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, following the accident with two Russian oil tankers «Volgoneft-212» and «Volgoneft-239». The deaths of the animals are most likely related to the fuel oil spill, which has already reached Feodosia, Alushta and Sudak.

As of 27 January, employees of the National Nature Park «Tuzly Estuaries» had collected up to four kilograms of fuel oil.