Oil-soaked sands and rescued animals: One year after the Kerch Strait spill, beaches in southern Russia remain polluted

On December 15, 2024, one of the largest environmental disasters in Russian history struck the Kerch Strait. Two Russian oil tankers sank during a storm, spilling an estimated 2,400 to 4,000 tons of oil into the sea. Within days, thick fuel oil began washing ashore along the Black Sea coast of Krasnodar Krai, near the resort city of Anapa. For months afterward, emergency crews, local residents, and more than 60,000 volunteers from across Russia worked to clean the oil from the beaches. With little help from the authorities, many were forced to buy protective gear and equipment out of their own pockets. Anapa’s summer tourist season was effectively lost, as officials closed the beaches and banned swimming in the sea. A year later, cleanup work is still ongoing, and fuel oil continues to coat the shoreline. Environmental experts say the ecosystem may take five to six years to fully recover. Here’s how the cleanup unfolded over the past year, and what Anapa’s beaches look like today.

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