Volunteers helping to clean up a major oil spill along Russia's Black Sea coast appealed in a video released on Monday for President Vladimir Putin to urgently send federal aid, saying that
Volunteers helping to clean up a major oil spill along Russia's Black Sea coast appealed in a video released on Monday for President Vladimir Putin to urgently send federal aid, saying that they and local authorities were overwhelmed.
The pollution, which has coated sandy beaches at and around Anapa, a popular summer resort, has caused serious problems for seabirds and everything from dolphins to porpoises.
The oil is from two ageing tankers hit by a storm on Dec. 15. One of the vessels split in half, while the other ran aground.
On Thursday, Putin called the incident an ecological disaster and officials from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry say over 10,000 people are now involved in the clean-up.
But a group of around 30 local volunteers, who filmed their appeal on a beach strewn with sacks full of polluted sand, told Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that they believed the scale of the disaster was too big for local authorities to cope and demanded Moscow send urgent help.
"The local authorities do not have the professional resources and technical means to neutralise the consequences of such a large-scale disaster and have been forced to compensate for the lack of manpower
Content Original Link:
" target="_blank">
