Two Russian oil tankers sink in storm, cause spill in Kerch Strait

Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Two oil tankers carrying nearly 9,000 metric tons of mazut fuel were damaged by a storm, broke in half, sunk and caused oil spills in Kerch Strait, which separates Crimea and Russia, a spokesman for Russia's emergency services said Sunday.

Mazut is used in power plants and other applications in countries of the former Soviet Union and Iran.

Volgoneft 212, ran aground with 13 crew members were evacuated and one member dying, Russia's federal sea and inland water transport agency, Rosmorrechflot, wrote in a statement obtained by Russian state-run TASS.

Volgoneft 239 also was damaged, adrift for several hours and ran aground with 14 crew members aboard.

Two criminal probes have been launched.

Sputnik posted video from the Russian Southern Transport Prosecutor's Office that shows the troubled tankers.

A tugboat, Merkuriy, was dispatched from Kerch to aid the crew, and a Mi-8 helicopter from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations took off with rescuers.

Michelle Bockmann, an analyst at the shipping industry journal Lloyd's List, told the BBC the two vessels are owned by the company Volgatanker.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed about the accident and ordered to organize rescue efforts.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin set up a working group to coordinate cleanup operations.

Mash reported they were built around 50 years ago and were converted in the 1990s from full-fledged tankers to "river-sea" class vessels.

The Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea on the north and Sea of Azoz on the south, separates Russia from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. Ukraine has struck Russia's vessels since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022. Around 30% of Russia's Black Sea Fleet is lost or disabled, according to the Ukrainian military.