Russian scientists have criticised (Russia’s) effort to clean up oil that has washed ashore from two oil tankers in the Black Sea, saying it lacks sufficient equipment.

On 15 December, two Russian oil tankers, the Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239 were hit by a storm in the Kerch Strait, with one sinking and the other running aground.

The ships were carrying 9,200 tonnes of fuel oil, about 40% of which may have spilled into the sea, according to Russian authorities.

President Vladimir Putin last week called it an “ecological disaster”.

Thousands of volunteers were mobilised to remove oil-sogged sand from nearby beaches. But scientists say the volunteers do not have the necessary equipment.

The volunteers have only “shovels and useless plastic bags that rip apart”, (Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, scientific head of the Water Problems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences) said.