One more Russian tanker incident as Ukrainian side highlight risks
Photo: Alexander Kashchuk tanker (RosZMI)
Another accident involving an oil tanker has occurred in Russia, leading to an oil spill in the Tatar Strait near the shores of Sakhalin. Due to the war, Moscow is unable to provide technical maintenance for its vessels, the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine reports.
Three months ago a similar incident with marine pollution happened off the coast of Kamchatka. One more case that led to the sinking of two tankers in the Kerch Strait in December last year caused a large-scale environmental disaster, the consequences of which the Russian authorities still cannot overcome.
Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation stated that recently, incidents involving Russian oil tankers have taken on a systemic nature, creating serious risks for the environment all over the world. The reason for this phenomenon is the inability of the Russian state to provide proper technical maintenance for vessels under the conditions of enormous expenses for the war against Ukraine and sanctions.
"Despite all attempts by ru-propaganda to downplay the scale of the problem, the risks of another large-scale environmental disaster due to the incident-prone Russian tanker fleet are only increasing," the statement says.
Russia's shadow fleet
In 2022, the EU imposed a ban on the import of Russian oil and, together with the G7, set a price cap on Moscow’s international sales of crude oil, hoping to cut the Kremlin's revenues after the invasion of Ukraine.
But Russia soon found ways to circumvent these measures. Moscow’s shadow fleet, which often relies on dubious insurers to bypass oil price restrictions, now makes up to 17% of all oil tankers in the world. As a result, the shadow fleet now transports over 80% of all Russian crude oil. To do this, Moscow uses old tankers that do not meet modern environmental standards.
As previously reported, on December 15, 2024, two Russian tankers were involved in an incident in the Kerch Strait. This caused a spill of thousands of tons of fuel oil into the sea.
