Scale of Oil Pollution Still Unclear After Ukrainian Drone Hit Tanker Off Sochi
Two weeks after a Ukrainian drone struck the Liberian-flagged tanker Aframax Rio off Sochi on Oct. 6, oil pollution has appeared along Russia's Krasnodar coast, but officials have offered few details. An environmental expert says the damage is far smaller than in the 2024 Anapa spill.
Two weeks after a Ukrainian drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Aframax Rio, it remains unclear how much oil has spilled along Russia's Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region. The strike took place on the evening of Oct. 6 off the resort city of Sochi and set the 247-meter vessel on fire. The situation is described by The Moscow Times, which Russia has designated an "undesirable" organization. Ukraine has stepped up maritime drone activity in recent months during the war with Russia, and attacks on energy infrastructure along the coast risk further environmental damage.
Conflicting official statements
Regional authorities first denied that the attack had caused any spill. Later, Krasnodar Governor Venyamin Kondratyev warned of a possible emergency in Gelendzhik and Novorossiysk. The regional Emergency Situations Ministry reported minor oil spills near Novorossiysk but said they were unrelated to the tanker.
The day after the attack, the ship was towed to Novorossiysk, Russia's largest Black Sea port. Satellite images analyzed by Greenpeace showed an oil slick of about 25 square kilometers by Oct. 8. The independent monitor Prozrachny Mir identified a slick stretching from Novorossiysk toward Arkhipo-Osipovka, some 70 kilometers away, in images from Oct. 10. Residents report oil-covered birds and traces of pollution washing ashore.
Comparison with the Anapa disaster
An environmentalist who spoke to The Moscow Times anonymously said the coastal pollution is incomparably smaller than the December 2024 spill near Anapa. In that incident, two Russian-flagged tankers were damaged in a storm and released more than 9,000 tons of heavy fuel oil into the sea. Hundreds of birds were affected then, the expert said, compared with single digits now, and about 60 kilometers of coastline was covered by a continuous strip of fuel oil.
The Aframax Rio can carry up to 100,000 metric tons of oil. The expert said the milder impact is likely because much of the oil burned. Some reports suggest the remaining oil is already being pumped out of the vessel.
