The accident of Russian tankers in the Kerch Strait on December 15, followed by a spill of oil products, caused more than $14 billion in damage to the Black Sea ecosystem, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine said, reports Crimea.Realities.

It is reported that Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria agreed at the ministerial level “joint steps for cooperation with international institutions” on the consequences of the accident of Russian tankers in the Kerch Strait.

Minister Svitlana Grinchuk held an online meeting with Romanian Minister of Environment, Water and Forest Resources Mircea Feket and Acting Minister of Environment and Water of Bulgaria Petar Dimitrov. The officials reportedly agreed to “coordinate joint efforts to restrict access to the Black Sea of the obsolete Russian Navy, which poses potential threats to the marine ecosystem.”

According to them, “the lack of verified data on the consequences of the accident of Russian tankers on December 15, 2024 and the further spread of fuel oil remains a problem.”

As stated in the Ministry of Enchology of Ukraine, as of today, satellite images show that contamination with Russian fuel oil has reached Evpatoria.

Grinchuk said that Ukraine has already appealed to the secretariats of the conventions of the UN, UNEP, UNESCO, the European Union, the International Maritime Organization (IMO). A response has already been received from the Secretariat of the Commission for the Protection of the Black Sea from Pollution on the need to hold an extraordinary meeting to consider this case.

Also on January 27, the case will be considered at a meeting of the IMO Subcommittee on Pollution Prevention.

As reported, two Volgoneft tankers with fuel oil crashed in the Kerch Strait on Sunday, December 15, — according to the main version, due to a storm.

As a result of the tanker accident, there was a spill of oil products. According to Russian media, Volgoneft-212 transported 4,300 tons of fuel oil. Shot and Baza claim that about the same amount of oil products were on board the Volgoneft-239.