Moscow – Authorities have announced the successful removal of nearly 1,500 tons of oil from a stranded tanker that ran ashore last year in southern Russia, a situation that led to a significant oil spill affecting vast stretches of the Black Sea coastline. This operation was confirmed by officials on Saturday.

On December 15, two Russian vessels, the Volgoneft-239 and the Volgoneft-212, sustained substantial damage due to rough seas, resulting in the spill of thousands of tons of substandard fuel oil, known as mazut, into the Kerch Strait.

A team from Russia’s Marine Rescue Service worked diligently for six days to pump out the remaining 1,488 tons of oil from the grounded Volgoneft-239, as detailed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev in a message posted on the government’s Telegram channel.

Earlier in the month, Minister of Emergency Situations Alexander Kurenkov disclosed plans to drain the damaged tanker. However, workers later discovered that the vessel was continuing to leak oil. Moving forward, the Volgoneft-239 is set to undergo cleaning and preparations for dismantling, according to Savelyev. The future of the second tanker, the Volgoneft-212, is still uncertain as it has already sunk.

The repercussions of the oil spill have been felt along the beaches of Russia’s Krasnodar region and within the Ukrainian territories of Crimea and the Berdyansk Spit, located approximately 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Kerch Strait. Earlier in January, President Vladimir Putin described the environmental crisis resulting from the spill as “one of the most serious challenges we have faced in recent years.”

As part of the cleanup operation, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry reported on Saturday that over 173,000 tons of polluted sand and soil have been collected, with the assistance of thousands of volunteers contributing their efforts throughout the weeks-long response.