"That's it, our nose has fallen off." Who will be held responsible for the disaster in the Kerch Strait?

Book of Ecclesiastes (1:15).
Attention, be careful, very dangerous: transportation of petroleum products
Transportation of petroleum products is an area associated with huge environmental risks, related to the class of hazardous cargo. If we look at the nuclear industry, we will see that all processes in it are carefully regulated. And what about oil transportation? There are restrictions, but in fact, the "invisible hand of the market" is stronger? And then it went boom, the consequences of the catastrophe in the Black Sea caused colossal damage not only to the most popular children's resort in Russia, but are already affecting Crimea and beyond.
Brief information about the disaster
The disaster occurred on December 15 in the Kerch Strait. According to Interfax, the main causes of the crash were crew error in difficult weather conditions and excessive storm load on the tankers' hulls. During the accident, one of the damaged tankers ran aground, and the other is drifting.
The tankers Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239 were built at shipyards in Volgograd, the first in December 1969, when it was 55 years old, the second in July 1973, when it was 51 years old. Ironically, the tanker was wrecked on the very day of its 55th anniversary - it was launched on 15.12.1969.
The ships were registered in St. Petersburg and Astrakhan, respectively. According to TASS, citing a source in the industry, the owners of the ships were the Perm company Kama Shipping and the Moscow-registered Volgatransneft. There were a crew of 27 people on board the two tankers. One of the sailors died, the rest were evacuated.

In the photo: tanker Volgoneft-212.
There was also a third (!) vessel, the Volgoneft-109, which was moored in the waters of the port of Kavkaz on 17.12.2024/XNUMX/XNUMX and, according to Interfax, sent a distress signal due to a crack on board. The vessel had a damaged cargo танк, there was no leak.
According to the Russian Ministry of Transport:
The total volume of cargo transported on both tankers was 9200 tons of fuel oil. As reported by TASS, according to an estimate made on 16.12.2024 with reference to satellite monitoring data, about 3000 tons of fuel oil leaked in the Kerch Strait. According to the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources Alexander Kozlov, about 4000 tons spilled into the sea. However, already on 2.01.2025, according to the press service of the Ministry of Transport, the figure in the Black Sea was reduced to 2400 tons of fuel oil. But since the ships have not been raised, it is too early to draw a line. As the presidential press secretary stated, "this is a major environmental disaster," and the issue remains in the president's focus.
Why haven't the ships been raised?
During a similar accident in 2007, almost the entire volume of fuel oil spilled into the sea at once, which allowed the measures to eliminate the accident to be localized. But fuel oil from the Volgoneft tankers continues to spill.
As the head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov stated, in order to resolve the situation with the fuel oil spill in the Black Sea globally, it is necessary to raise both tankers, otherwise all beach cleanup work will be local in nature. If the ships are not raised, the process may become lengthy and unpredictable.
According to experts, the thickening of fuel oil in cold water prevents active leakage from the remains of ships.
On 26.12.2024, a special pumping unit arrived in Novorossiysk, attempts were made to remove the fuel, but due to a storm at sea, diving operations were temporarily suspended.
According to the director of the Center for Marine Research and Technology at Sevastopol State University, in an interview with RG, the operation to lift the sunken tankers will take at least two months. "These tankers are not that big, it is quite possible to lift them. Ship-lifting pontoons are used for this. We have such pontoons in the Black Sea... Based on experience, lifting operations take at least two months, weather permitting."
Recently, the head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, at a meeting of the government commission, demanded that a list of specific measures to eliminate the consequences of the accident be presented by January 15.
According to the latest data, the ship owners of Volgoneft will complete the activities to lift the tankers from the bottom of the Kerch Strait by June 16, 2025. The pumping of fuel oil from the tanker in the Black Sea will begin after its position is fixed. For pumping, they began heating the fuel oil, the work to pump oil products from the stern of the Volgoneft-239 tanker may be completed by the end of January. According to BFM, lifting the tankers from the seabed may take from three months to a year with the cost of the work from 200 million rubles to 1 billion rubles.
At the same time, the efforts of local authorities and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, volunteers are simply heroic. At the same time, about 150 participants in cleaning the coast from fuel oil turned to doctors.
The situation shows that, despite the incidents that are occurring, there is no adequate liquidation technical base in the country. A month has already passed since the accident.
Damage assessment
According to experts, the size of the slick in the Black Sea on 23.12.2024 from the strait to Anapa was about 800 sq. km. As stated by the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation Alexander Kozlov, the volume of soil contaminated with fuel oil from the Black Sea beaches may amount to 200 thousand tons. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations (Interfax) on 13.01.2025, rescuers and volunteers collected more than 160 thousand tons of sand with fuel oil from the coast of the resort town of Anapa and the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory.
As reported by Vesti, as of 20.01.2025, about 300 kilometers of coastline in Sevastopol, Crimea and Kuban have been cleared of fuel oil.
After the crash, some of the pollution remained in the water, some settled to the bottom, and the rest was washed up on the coast.
Here is how the media and government agencies assess the damage from the accident:

Gazette:
"Almost 5800 contaminated birds, mostly great grebes, have been found in Anapa and the Temryuk district. However, birds are also being rescued on the Crimean coast, so the final figure for birds is unlikely to appear in the near future."
Kuban-inform:
Volunteers managed to save more than 700 birds.
RIAMO:
"The resort town of Anapa will cease to be one."
"The fuel oil spilled in the Kerch Strait has reached Novorossiysk."
News:
14.01.2025, TASS:
According to environmentalists, the fuel oil that got into the Black Sea could reach the Turkish coast. And what if we are later presented with international lawsuits?
Expert Edition:
And it’s simply banal: do our officials and businessmen really not care about their residences?
Experts call what happened an ecological catastrophe and predict that the ecosystem will not be able to recover from it even in 10 years, some say decades.
Scientific Director of the Whale Protection Fund Vladimir Latka:
A State Duma deputy from Krasnodar Krai called for limiting fishing in the Black and Azov Seas, since fuel oil from tankers could end up in fish, which could end up on Russians' tables. Apparently, the same applies to mussels and other seafood.
According to scientists, writes "KP", the real consequences of the oil spill will become apparent closer to summer, when the fuel oil, which is at the bottom or in the water column, begins to rise to the surface and, under the influence of the sun, begins to partially dissolve in it.
According to preliminary estimates by experts of the project "The Earth Concerns Everyone", the total damage may reach 33 billion rubles. But the amount is rapidly increasing. As reported by the TV channel "Russia" with reference to the Azov-Black Sea territorial administration of the Federal Agency for Fishery, "The possible damage from the disaster will amount to about 304 billion rubles».
What is the formula for calculating damage? It is the sum of annual losses by industry: tourism, local trade, transportation, fishing and seafood, damage to nature, costs of eliminating the consequences of the accident, plus reputational losses, possible international claims - a total for a period of about 10 years or more. So what is the real figure - 30 or 300 billion, or maybe even more?
Can you ask someone who has nothing? Who will pay for this damage? Who will force oil exporters to invest in transportation and shipbuilding? But we, the taxpayers, will pay for the catastrophe. And officials and businessmen will move away from the Black Sea in the summer.
Route and logistics
The Volgoneft-212 carried out its last voyage on behalf of the Samara shipping company Staksel, which, not Kama Shipping, was the cargo carrier. The tanker Volgoneft-239 belongs to the company Volgatransneft, which itself acts as a carrier.
The general logistics are as follows: at anchorages near Kerch, small Volgoneft river-sea tankers deliver oil or fuel oil, and at the port they are reloaded into large sea tankers heading to the Mediterranean Sea.
As the investigators established, the vessel was last checked for suitability for transporting dangerous goods in July 2024, and the tanker left on its last voyage on November 10, 2024. Volgoneft-212 was heading from Saratov to the port of Kavkaz, and as a result of a storm, it broke into two parts. Volgoneft-239, also with a cargo of fuel oil, left the port of Azov for the port of Kavkaz on November 16, and as a result of a storm in the Kerch Strait, its bow was torn off.
History of incidents with Volgoneft tankers: the current accident was already the third!
"Volgoneft-212" was built at the Volgograd Shipyard, the tanker was part of the largest series of oil tankers in the USSR.
The maximum service life of such vessels is 40 years, but they undergo inspection every five years. At the same time, the Investigative Committee conducts searches in companies that inspect wrecked tankers.
It was well known that the risk of operating Volgoneft tankers in a storm was very high. The Volgoneft series vessels are of the river-sea class. They are single-hulled; designed for operation on rivers and large reservoirs. According to the River Register, their safe operation is ensured at a wave height of no more than 2 meters. Already in Soviet times, tankers began to go out to the open sea, although the risks of such operation were obvious. During the current accident, the wave height, according to various estimates, was 4-5 m.
The first major incident with tankers of this type occurred on 29.12.1999 with the tanker Volgoneft-248, which broke apart from a powerful wave and sank during a storm in the Sea of Marmara off the coast of Turkey, with about 800 tons of fuel oil spilling into the sea. The stern part remained afloat, while the bow part sank.
The second, more serious call was on November 11, 2007, in the same Kerch Strait, when four ships sank during a storm, six ran aground, and two tankers were damaged. From two to three thousand tons of fuel oil spilled into the sea from the Volgoneft-139 tanker. 45 tons of fuel and lubricants spilled from other ships, as well as more than six and a half thousand tons of granulated sulfur.
The damage to the environment caused by the sinking of several ships in the Kerch Strait in November 2007 was then estimated at 20 billion rubles.
At the same time, the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation stated that the damage caused would be compensated by the ship owners who allowed the accidents to happen. However, according to the owner of the sunken ships, the cause of the 2007 disaster was the untimely notification of the ships by the coastal services about the approaching storm.
Alexey Grigoriev, an expert from the Social and Ecological Union, describes the accidents of November 11, 2007 as follows:
The creation and long-term operation of this extremely dangerous system of cargo export with the complete inaction of state control and regulatory structures became the second prerequisite for the catastrophe of November 11, 2007... Unfortunately, Russian oil companies, which, in conditions of information secrecy and inaction of government bodies, use such extremely dangerous transport schemes, do not demonstrate social responsibility."
The current case is the third! Deja vu? And here again, three of the 81 Volgoneft-type tankers got into emergency situations in the Black Sea in mid-December 2024. Will we expect more accidents?
So why didn't you unload it?
According to the TG channel Baza, there was a long delay in unloading the tanker for unknown reasons:
As evidence, the channel cites data from the correspondence between the port and the captain. The results are known - the largest ecological disaster in the Black Sea. The fact of the delay is also confirmed by the Insurance Agency News, indicating that the exact cause is determined by the investigation. And if this is true, then this is the second most important cause of the accident.
According to Kuban-inform, which also confirmed the fact of the delay:
One of the reasons mentioned above is port congestion.
In response to the West's embargo on oil supplies and its transportation at a price ceiling, so that buyers could avoid secondary sanctions, fuel and energy products are sold through intermediaries. But if this is a matter of national importance, what prevents them from putting normal ships there, not junk, right?
10.01.2025/180/XNUMX The United States adopted a large-scale package of sanctions against the Russian fuel and energy complex, against two large oil companies, more than XNUMX vessels, dozens of oil traders and oilfield service providers.
Not only old ones, but also rebuilt ones
As the ship's captain anonymously stated in an interview with Bloknot-Novorossiysk:
He then talks about the conversion of these vessels to the river-sea standard:
"According to the information I have, a wave of up to 5 meters was recorded in the Kerch Strait at the time of the disaster. This is a serious storm for large vessels, not to mention the Volgoneft tankers, which belong to the "river-sea" class. They are not designed for such weather conditions... The vessel was most likely torn from its anchor. While it is "bow" to the wave, it can still withstand the load. When the vessel is torn from its anchor, it becomes broadside to the wave, and then it is very difficult to withstand the onslaught of the elements even for modern vessels, not to mention those that are 50-60 years old. The tanker could not withstand it and burst at the seam."
The same information is available in the REN TV publication:
The Telegram channel Mash writes the same:
Who will pay the bills?
Aksenov believes that regional authorities hope to recover damages from ship-owning companies. 24.12.2024/XNUMX/XNUMX The head of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, Alexander Kozlov, announced that the owners of the tankers that sank in the Kerch Strait will take responsibility for their recovery and disposal.
Meanwhile, according to the SPARK system, in 2023 the company's revenue amounted to 89,8 million rubles, and the loss was 61,34 million rubles. Kama Shipping LLC, founded in Perm in 2016, earned 228 million rubles over the same period, but suffered a loss of 14 million rubles.
Can we count something that does not exist? Can a company whose capabilities do not correspond to the scale and risks of particularly dangerous activities transport oil in violation of transportation regulations, on ships that are more than 50 years old?
Why risk nature?
According to portnews, the average age of technical fleet, operating on the inland waterways of Russia, is about 45 years old. We, like Tsarist Russia, have no money, although we are bathed in raw material income.
There are currently 81 river-sea tankers of the Volgoneft type in Russia. All of them are under the supervision of the Russian Classification Society. The oldest of these vessels was built back in 1962 (62 years ago - a museum exhibit), of which 55 are in operation, and the newest - in 1982 (42 years). That is, their average age is 48 years!!!
According to Vera Kashina, Associate Professor of the Department of Design and Shipbuilding Technology at the Volga State University of Water Transport (VSUWT):
But the main thing for capitalists is profit, isn't it? Once in the 90s we were taught that Russian entrepreneurs would shower us with investments, but when this didn't happen, they stood with their hand outstretched, asking for them from the West.
Why is the fleet not being renewed, why are there no investments? And responsibility and state thinking? Basically, small carriers and ship owners of old ships do not make investments, squeezing everything out of old ships. Perhaps, if in our country it was possible to take a loan at 5% for 10-15 years, the problem would somehow be solved. But our Bank of Russia was created for this purpose, so that this never happens. The accident in the Black Sea is one of the harbingers of the collapse of the raw materials market model, similar to the one in 1986 when the beginning of the decline of the USSR was the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Large carriers simply feel sorry for the money, and in the absence of pressure from the state and strict adherence to regulations on the technical condition and age of ships, they simply eat up the capital inherited from the USSR. There are no investments: the state is saving up a piggy bank, private owners are taking the money out.
Now let's recall the experience of South Korea, which in a relatively short period of time became a world leader in shipbuilding. This happened only on the orders of the author of the "economic miracle", dictator Park Chung Hee.

Pictured: A shipyard in South Korea
Russia still has excellent engineers, a literate workforce and, most importantly, a sea of its own metal.
But after the collapse of the USSR, many industries were ruined and completely destroyed.

In the photo: the very same plant in Volgograd where Volgoneft was assembled.
As the head of the marketing department of the shipyard testifies:
Are we not striving to realize our potential? Russia is a leader in the nuclear industry, and ships are clearly easier. Is it chaos in our minds? No - it is a deliberate slowdown of our development by the raw materials elite.
As the captain of the tourist ship "Arabella" notes:
As the professor, head of the department of ship design and technical operation (SPbGMTU) said in an interview with Kommersant-Kuban, tankers of the Volgoneft type continue to operate in Russian waters despite exceeding their estimated service life. This means that if everything is left as is, new disasters may be repeated. The solution may be a gradual replacement of the outdated fleet with state support for shipbuilding programs.
The Kerch Strait as an environmental hazard zone
Let us quote the work of Ivanovskaya and Markelova in the journal “Young Scientist”:
They are echoed by Alexander Korshenko, PhD in Biology, Head of the Laboratory for Monitoring Marine Pollution at the State Oceanographic Institute:
Measures and conclusions
According to Mitko A.V., President of the Arctic Public Academy of Sciences, Associate Professor at the D.I. Mendeleyev All-Russian Research Institute of Metrology, St. Petersburg State University:
From 1.01.2028, Russian legislation introduced a ban on the operation of single-hull oil tankers. The exception was vessels operating in the Lena water basin.
Now the experts interviewed assume that the operation of Volgoneft-type vessels will soon be completely banned, which will take out of service an oil tanker fleet with a total deadweight of about 300 thousand tons.”
The possible measures are obvious:
1) Remove the oldest ships from service and inspect the rest.
2) Urgently launch a program to create new courts with state support and development of the industry.
3) Consolidate the industry by introducing requirements for the size of carrier assets and eliminating all small companies.
4) Create a specialized state transport company.
5) Create an environmental insurance fund at the expense of large oil producing companies.
6) Introduce strict weather and seasonal restrictions on the unloading of tankers in the port, ensure planning of the order and schedule of arrival and unloading taking into account the port’s capabilities and weather forecasts.
7) Increase the capacity of the Kavkaz port or create new ones.
Finale
The system is to blame for the accident, Russian raw material capitalism, which is the main cause of the demographic crisis and the stagnation in development, and now the largest ecological disaster on the Black Sea. In the spring and summer, people will go to the Black Sea and see the results of the incident. This is a sign of a failure of the system, including the private model of the transport fleet.
The year 2025, as it is considered by the Eastern calendar, is the same as 1905, 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013. This is a year that began with an unprecedentedly abnormally warm winter, a year of a possible new big turning point, which can occur due to the convergence of many factors at one point, including the agreement on the NWO with Trump. The pressing problems will be solved by a new, renewed country.
Information