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Large pollution slick approaches Crimea, Russian coast impacted, monitoring group says

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Large pollution slick approaches Crimea, Russian coast impacted, monitoring group says
Satellite photos showing the progression of an oil slick nearing Russian-occupied Crimea on Sept. 2, 2025. (The Crimean Wind/Telegram)

A 14-square-kilometer oil slick is moving toward the Crimean peninsula, with most of the spill already reaching the coast of Russia's Krasnodar Krai, the Crimean Wind monitoring group reported on Sept. 2, citing satellite imagery.

The spill originated on Aug. 29 at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai. The slick initially covered around 40 square kilometers, according to the report.

The main slick currently stretches about 100 kilometers (62 miles) along the Krasnodar coast — from the port city of Novorossiysk to the Taman Peninsula — covering an area of roughly 211 square kilometers. The smaller slick breaking off from the main mass is drifting toward Crimea, according to the Crimean Wind.

Russian authorities have remained largely silent on the incident and appear to be downplaying its severity, the monitoring group added.

This is not the first time a Russian oil spill has caused environmental damage in the Black Sea.

In December 2024, two Russian tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, sank in the Kerch Strait, resulting in a fuel oil spill that spread across the Black Sea. The spill caused significant ecosystem pollution, with petroleum residues affecting areas from the occupied cities of Kerch to Sevastopol and Yevpatoria.

Crimea has been under occupation since Russia illegally invaded and annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly targeted the Crimean Bridge, a key supply and transport route for Russian troops operating in the occupied Ukrainian territories.

Russia’s oil tanker crash causes ‘worst ecological catastrophe,’ with Black Sea in need of a decade to recover
On the night of Dec. 15, 2024, two Russian oil tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, sank in the Kerch Strait, a narrow maritime connection between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, off the coast of occupied Crimea. Both vessels were constructed for service on rivers, not on the open sea, and did not have valid sailing documents at the time of the disaster. The tankers also violated a weather-based ban on entering the Kerch Strait. The vessel crews then attempted for days to obtain an aut
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Kateryna Hodunova

News Editor

Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

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