Russians admit that cleaning Black Sea coast from fuel oil could take years at best

The authorities of the aggressor country russia have no idea when the Black Sea coast will be able to be cleaned of fuel oil, which leaked from two russian tankers in late December 2024.

This is evidenced by the transcript of a meeting of russian government officials with dictator vladimir putin, published on the kremlin website.

During a report to putin, the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the russian federation Alexander Kozlov said that it is currently impossible to name the final areas of beach restoration.

"The restoration areas can be named after all fuel oil emissions stop and it is removed from the coast," Kozlov said.

At the same time, at the beginning of the meeting, he told putin that it is currently unclear whether the sunken fragments of the broken tankers will be raised or the fuel oil, which is still continuing to flow into the sea, will be pumped out.

Kozlov added that to date, approximately 280 hectares of the coast have been cleaned of fuel oil. Its restoration will require 840,000 cubic meters of sand.

"We will resolve the issue of financing and start work in the fourth quarter of the year and complete it in May 2026," said Kozlov.

It should be noted that this only concerns beaches in the Krasnodar Krai of the russian federation. The restoration of the coast in the occupied Crimea was not discussed at the meeting led by the russian dictator.

Recall that earlier, the russians participating in the removal of fuel oil stated that the release of petroleum products on the Black Sea coast would occur at least until the summer of 2025.

The accident of the Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239 tankers occurred on December 15, 2024 in the Kerch Strait. The cause of the death of both vessels was a strong storm.

Each tanker was carrying about 4,000 tons of oil products. As a result of the accident, they are spilling into the Black Sea.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on January 24, it became known that lumps of fuel oil that leaked from the Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239 tankers were discovered off the coast of the Odesa Region.

And on January 13, we reported that a huge spot of oil products from russian tankers was spotted in the Sea of ​​Azov near the occupied Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Region.