Putin criticizes Russian officials, says more needs to be done to clean Black Sea oil spill

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that more needed to be done to clean up an oil spill in the Black Sea, saying efforts so far appeared to have been insufficient to deal with the ecological disaster.

The oil leaked from two ageing tankers after they were hit by a storm on December 15 in the Kerch Strait. One sank and the other ran aground.

A boat sails next to the Crimean bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the peninsula across the Kerch Strait in this file photo from July 2023. Reuters/File

Approximately 2,400 metric tons of oil products spilled into the sea, Russian investigators said last week, in what Putin on Thursday called "one of the most serious environmental challenges we have faced in years".

When the disaster struck, state media reported that the stricken tankers, both more than 50-years old, were carrying some 9,200 metric tons (62,000 barrels) of oil products in total.

Since the spill, thousands of emergency workers and volunteers have been working to clear tons of contaminated sand and earth on either side of the Kerch Strait. Environmental groups have reported deaths of dolphins, porpoises and sea birds.

Volunteers work to clean up spilled oil on the shoreline following an incident involving two tankers damaged in a storm in the Kerch Strait, during an emergency response operation in the Black Sea resort of Anapa, Russia, in this picture released December 18, 2024. Reuters

The Kerch Strait runs between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and separates Crimea's Kerch Peninsula from Russia's Krasnodar region.

Putin told a government meeting that the clean-up efforts had been poorly coordinated between regional and federal bodies.

"From what I see and from the information I receive, I conclude that everything being done to minimize the damage is clearly not enough yet," the Kremlin leader told officials.

He called for a commission to be formed to mitigate the disaster and prevent oil products from leaking from flooded tankers in the future.