Early in the morning of 15 December 2024, two Russian Project 1577 Volgoneft oil tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, were caught in a storm just south of the Kerch Strait. Volgoneft-212, which was reportedly carrying about 4,900 tonnes of mazut, broke in two and sank, resulting in an oil spill and the death of one crew member. Volgoneft-239 was damaged, causing her to drift for several hours until she ran aground near the Port of Taman, Krasnodar Krai. She, too, began leaking oil.
Both ships still had some of their cargo intact and the oil leak on Volgoneft-239 was stopped by the next day, with an estimated spillage of either 2,400 or 5,000 tonnes. Reports of puddles of oil making landfall between the Crimean Bridge and the town of Anapa began on 17 December, with about of coastline becoming polluted. As a result, a state of emergency was declared in the Anapsky and Temryuksky Districts that day. Further declarations occurred across the entirety of Krasnodar Krai on 25 December, federally the following day and in Crimea by 28 December.
The incident was noted by the Russian Ministry of Transport as the first spillage of mazut in history, a substance which the organisation noted had "no proven methods for removing it from the water column" due to its properties. It was later labelled as the "worst ecological disaster of the 21st century" by Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, head of the Water Problems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and ex-minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The environmental impacts were stark, polluting the coastline to varying degrees across large portions of the northern Black Sea coastline and areas of the Sea of Azov and killing both birds and marine animals. By 8 January 2025, 175 sea birds had died at a single rehabilitation centre, by 11 January 111 cetaceans were found washed up on the Krasnodar Krai and Crimean coasts and by 7 February approximately 5,000 jellyfish had washed up on a section of coast in Odesa Oblast.
Separate criminal cases were opened by Russia into both ships for potential maritime safety breaches, though the case for Operational-Tactical-212 had an additional charge for negligent homicide. Both captains were charged on 18 December, with the captain of Volgoneft-212 being placed under investigative custody and the captain of Volgoneft-239 being placed under house arrest for two months each.
Background Kerch Strait
The Kerch Strait separates the Kerch Peninsula in Crimea and the Taman Peninsula in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Several ships have been either damaged or sunk in storms in or near the Kerch Strait.
was carrying 4,800 tonnes of fuel oil when she anchored in the Kerch Strait in a storm in November 2007. She split in two, spilling from 1,300 to 1,600 tonnes of oil, resulting in "tens of kilometres" of pollution on both sides of the Kerch Strait. 13 crew members were rescued, and four other ships sank in the storm.
On 19 April 2017, the Panamanian-registered 3,500 tonne bulk carrier Geroi Arsenala split in two and sank about south of the Taman Peninsula between the Port of Azov in Rostov Oblast and Turkey while carrying grain in a storm. One crew member was rescued, while a further two were later found dead; nine were missing.
In November 2023, the Strait was closed due to severe stormy weather as a measure to prevent damage to ships. Despite this, during the closure, two ships, Matros Shevchenko and Matros Pozynich, stopped close to each other in the Strait. The pair collided at low speed, drifting into an anchored ship, Kavkaz-5.
Environmental issues in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov The Black Sea and the Sea of Azov have faced numerous issues since the 20th century including the polluting effects of the aforementioned incidents and from nearby ports and rivers; the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, with ships being sunk, underwater explosions and Russia using protected lands as training grounds or extraction sites for materials; overfishing; invasive species; and climate change. These issues have caused changes to the local ecosystems and caused some species to disappear.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine however, these negative effects were greatly exacerbated. There has been a rapid die-off of dolphins, porpoises and other cetaceans, with cases of live animals washing up on shore also increasing. The highest rate of cases is around Crimea, particularly near to Sevastopol, where several Russian bases reside. In early 2022, Russian warships began blockading Ukrainian ports. The release of ballast water by the warships is not monitored, allowing pollutants and invasive species from other areas to enter the environment. Sunken warships also caused several oil spills, with the spills extending tens of thousands of square kilometres, including into protected waters, with oil polymerization in the water causing mass bird deaths.
Fires from military activities have also damaged several national parks. As an example, a total of 131 fires were recorded on the Kinburn Peninsula, a protected area for marine and coastal colonies, in 2022, destroying over 5,000 hectares of the park and the nesting places of about 100 bird species.
Following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on 6 June 2023, several protected areas were flooded, with freshwater polluted by fuels, lubricants, fertilizers and wastewater from settlements and fields entering the Black Sea. In the days that followed, rapid desalination of sea water from 14 to 4ppm was discovered in the waters near Odesa, Ukraine. In some coastal areas, researchers noted acute toxicity in the water, with nitrogen concentrations drastically rising, an indicator of direct sewage pollution. Polluted water was also found in the Danube River. About 30,000 animals were killed as a result, with species such as the squacco heron and the little egret disappearing.
Despite this, in the years preceding 2023, researchers noticed indicators that some ecosystems had begun gradually recovering. Although it is currently impossible to assess the impacts on the Sea of Azov, researchers were able to have limited access to the Black Sea. What they discovered is that, due to tourist travel being banned in the north western Black Sea due to mining and a lessening in commercial ships and fishing, there had been a lessening of pressure on ecosystems. Several species considered rare had also become more common with the lack of tourism.
Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239
Volgoneft-212 was built in 1969, was 136 metres in length and was registered in Saint Petersburg. She was owned and managed by KamaTransOil and Kama Shipping, both of which are based in Perm, Russia. They acquired the ship in 2014 and have a licence to transport dangerous cargo by inland waterways and sea indefinitely, which was issued in 2016. Kama Shipping was fined ₽400,000 ($6,406) in 2019 for, between 1 May and 23 July that year, transporting dangerous cargo by sea without a special permit. Volgoneft-212 was refitted in 2024, with The Guardian reporting that in this refit "the centre was cut out and the stern and bow were welded together, forming a huge seam in the middle. It is this section that appears to have broken."
Volgoneft-239 was built in 1973, is 132 metres in length and was registered in Astrakhan and has been owned and operated by Volgotransneft since 2010. Both tankers have a maximum loading capacity of about 4,200 tonnes. Mash reported that both ships were reclassified some time in the 1990s from purely riverine traffic to river and maritime use.
Databases claim that both ships are controlled by Volgotanker, a company based in Samara which transports oil products in Russia's inland waterways and along the coast of the Black Sea. Almost all of their ships were built between 1966 and 1990 with a capacity of between 4,000 and 5,000 dwt. The actual ownership of the ships was called "murky" by TradeWinds due to bankruptcy proceedings against them and attempts to sell off their assets.
Certifications iStories reported that, in the months prior to the incident, both ships had been shuttling between Port Kavkaz in the Kerch Strait and oil refinery terminals on the Volga River. They further reported that, according to the certifications held by both ships, neither were allowed in the Kerch Strait during December, with restrictions in place for travel in November should wind speed and wave height limits be met.
According to Igor Kovalchuk, an employee from the Russian Professional Union of Seafarers, the maximum wave height for Volgoneft-212 was , and the maximum for Volgoneft-239 was . Both were rated for wind speeds of up to . According to iStories, the wave height limit for Volgoneft-212 in the Kerch Strait was and Volgoneft-239's was 1.5 meters.
Izvestia reported that both tankers should have been decommissioned 10–15 years prior to the incident as they have a service life of between 30 and 40 years. Both were tested for their suitability for transporting dangerous cargo in July 2024. Volgoneft-239 had had its licence suspended on 30 November, and thus should not have been at sea.
Disaster Early in the morning of 15 December 2024, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 were heading south out of the Kerch Strait, entering the more open waters of the Black Sea. Volgoneft-212 had 13 crew on board, while Volgoneft-239 had 14 crew on board; both ships were carrying mazut, a low grade heavy fuel oil used in various applications across the former Soviet Union and Iran. The cargo was from Rosneft. Volgoneft-212 was carrying 4,900 tonnes, while Volgoneft-239 was carrying about 4,300 tonnes; according to iStories, both were transporting their cargo from Rostov-on-Don to the FIRN storage tanker, a part of the Russian shadow fleet, in the Kavkaz transshipment area in the mouth of the Black Sea.
The Kyiv Independent reported that in the days prior to the incident and as the storm began, both ships had tried several times to obtain authorisation to offload their cargo at an unnamed nearby port in Crimea.
There are differing reports as to the conditions the ships faced. According to unnamed Russian officials in Crimea on the day of the incident, the storm reached up to a seven on the Beaufort scale, with wind speeds up to . According to meteorologists at the Crimean State Hydrometeorological Service, wind speeds of about were expected. Similarly, according to a Television News Service report on the day of the incident, waves reached a height of , with wind speeds of about .
One of the crew members of Volgoneft-212, Alexander Marchenko, told Izvestia that he did not find any issues with the ship on his morning rounds, but remarked that there had been strong waves. Later that day, an alarm was sounded, with the ship splitting in two about from shore after it was hit by a large wave. Its bow sank and one crew member died of hypothermia. The majority of its cargo was spilled. Soon after Volgoneft-212 was damaged, Volgoneft-239 sustained damage and lost power, drifting for several hours until she ran aground about from shore near the Port of Taman.
Two rescue tugboats were sent from Kerch, while two Mil Mi-8 helicopters and over 50 people were deployed to assist in the rescue efforts. The rescue efforts were complicated due to the darkness and the storm, though the remaining crew members of Volgoneft-212 were rescued, at least eight of which had to be rescued from the water. 11 crew members were hospitalised, two of which were treated for hypothermia.
Efforts to rescue the crew of Volgoneft-239 were temporarily suspended due to inclement weather, with the ship having all necessary means to ensure the safety of the crew, though rescuers maintained contact with the ship. Rescue efforts were resumed the following day, rescuing the entire crew.
Nearby incidents