
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