A Russian oil tanker carrying thousands of tons of petroleum products broke apart during a severe storm on Sunday, spilling oil into the Kerch Strait, while another tanker was also at risk after sustaining damage, Russian officials said.
The ships were in the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, when they sent distress signals.
Russian investigators have opened two criminal cases to look into possible safety violations after at least one person was killed when the 136-metre-long Volgunft 212 tanker, carrying 15 people, split in half after its bow sank.
Footage broadcast by official media showed waves washing over the ship’s deck.
Officials said the Russian-flagged ship, built in 1969, was damaged and ran aground.
An unverified video posted on Telegram showed some black water in stormy seas and a semi-submerged tanker.
The second Russian-flagged ship, the 132-metre-long Volgunft 239, drifted after sustaining damage, the Emergencies Ministry said. It has a crew of 14 people and was built in 1973.
The main route for fuel and grain exports
The Kerch Strait is a major route for Russian grain exports and is also used for exports of crude oil, fuel oil and liquefied natural gas.
In September, Ukraine accused Russia before an international court of violating the law of the sea by trying to keep the Kerch Strait under its sole control, something Moscow denied and described as baseless.
Emergency services said one person died, but 12 other people were evacuated from the first tanker. TASS news agency quoted Alexei Kuznetsov, an aide to the Minister of Health, as saying that 11 of the injured were taken to hospital, two of them in serious condition.
The Emergencies Ministry said it was still in contact with the other tanker and its crew after the ship ran aground 80 meters from shore near the port of Taman at the southern end of the Kerch Strait.
Each tanker has a loading capacity of about 4,200 tons of petroleum products.
Official data did not provide details about the extent of the leak or why one of the tankers was exposed to such severe damage.
News agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to form a working group to deal with the rescue operation and mitigate the impact of the fuel leak, after Putin met with the Ministers of Emergency and Environment.
Russia said more than 50 people and equipment, including Mi-8 helicopters and rescue tugboats, had been deployed to the area.
Svetlana Radionova, head of Russia’s natural resources watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, said specialists were assessing the damage at the accident site.
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