‘Ordinary people with shovels’: Volunteers cleaning Black Sea oil spill ask Putin for help

Volunteers helping to clean up the oil spill on Russia’s Black Sea coast are appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more assistance, as they grapple with environmental havoc across more than 35 miles of coastline.

Two Russian tankers carrying thousands of tons of fuel were badly damaged in stormy weather near the Black Sea earlier this month, leading to an oil spill, according to Russian state media. The tankers were carrying more than 9,000 tons of oil, according to TASS, much of which spilled into the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and annexed Crimea.

Putin last week labelled the spill an “environmental disaster.”

At least 3,700 tons of heavy oil were spilled, though the actual volume may be higher, according to Greenpeace Ukraine. Video from the scene showed blackened waves washing the heavy fuel oil known as mazut onto rocky shores. In one video, a bird – its wings thick with oil – could be seen squawking in distress as it was pummeled by waves, unable to lift its wings and fly away.

In a video message addressed to the Russian president and prime minister on Tuesday, volunteers said that local authorities in Russia’s Krasnodar region did not have the means to clean up the oil spill.

“Local authorities are not coping, they do not have the resources for this. The only resource is ordinary people with shovels, such a catastrophe cannot be defeated with shovels!” one volunteer said in the video, as they requested federal resources and specialists to be sent to the area. They also appealed for foreign specialists to be sent, warning that the scale of the pollution will have an international impact.

“It was recently announced that 5,000 volunteers and rescuers are working to eliminate the consequences. We believe that in such a vast disaster area, even 50,000 people with shovels are not able to solve the problem and save the situation,” the volunteer added.

On Thursday, Putin suggested the captains of the vessels were to blame for the incident. “Why am I saying that this is a big disaster and a catastrophe? Because almost 40% of the fuel has leaked,” he said, adding that efforts to recover the vessels were hampered by the ongoing storm.

Russia’s Investigative Committee will open a criminal case into the incident, Russian state media TASS reported.