Around 50 km of beaches in Crimea have been affected by the leak.
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Russian oil spill contaminates 50 km of Black Sea beaches
Russia on Wednesday expanded an operation to clean up thousands of tons of oil that spilled into the sea and contaminated 50 kilometers of beaches after tankers sank in a storm.
An old Russian tanker broke up and sank, and another ran aground on Sunday in a strait linking the Azov and Black Seas between Crimea, annexed to Moscow, and the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, known for its beach resorts.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry said on Wednesday that it was working on cleaning 49 kilometers (30 miles) of beaches from the northern resort of Anapa to the port of Temryuk and patrolling a total of 70 km of beaches.
The two tankers were carrying around 9,000 tons of oil, and satellite monitoring suggests that around 3,000 tons were spilled, state news agency TASS reported.
Satellite images showed that oil is still leaking from the sunken tanker, TASS reported on Wednesday, citing Crimean marine researcher Sergei Stanichny, with strong winds pushing the oil onto Russia's southern beaches.
The seaside resort of Anapa, with a population of around 90,000, declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.
The number of volunteers and emergency workers “increased to 2,700”, the Emergency Situations Ministry said on Wednesday.
They were collecting the black oil from the beaches and removing it in plastic bags and excavator trucks.
The ministry said they collected around 80 tons of oil and cleaned more than eight kilometers of beach.
Among the participants were around 400 Cossacks, people who live in the steppes of Russia and Ukraine, the Anapa mayor's office said.
Volunteers from the town were working to remove the oil from the birds at a rescue point, TASS reported.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova appealed for volunteers on her Telegram channel, saying that “Anapa is fighting the oil spill and trying to save the beaches. Those famous golden sandy beaches that attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.”
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