A state of emergency was introduced in Crimea today due to oil pollution of the beaches near Sevastopol, the largest city on the peninsula.
Oil spilled from two tankers hit by a storm nearly three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, some 250 kilometers from Sevastopol, which is located in the southwest of the peninsula.
"Today, a regional state of emergency has been declared in Sevastopol," regional governor Mihail Razvozhaev wrote on Telegram.
He added that oil was found on four beaches in the region, and that local authorities and volunteers "immediately removed it".
"Let me emphasize - there is no massive pollution of the coast in Sevastopol," he wrote.
The Kerch Strait, which separates the Crimean peninsula from Russia's Krasnodar region, is an important global maritime route, passing from the Azov Sea to the Black Sea.
It was also a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014.
In 2016, Ukraine launched a dispute against Moscow at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, accusing Russia of trying to illegally take control of the area. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Mihail Podolyak, described the oil spill as a "large-scale environmental disaster" and called for additional sanctions against Russian tankers.
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