Oil on the water: How Russia avoided accountability for the Black Sea tanker disaster caused by its sanctions evasion efforts
Russia has still not fully addressed the consequences of the wrecks of the Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 tankers in the Kerch Strait in December 2024. As a result, as many as 120,000 cetaceans have died, and petroleum residue is still drifting through the sea. Although a Russian court ordered the tankers’ nominal owners to pay billions of rubles in damages, the money is unlikely to be…
In December 2024, two oil tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, sank in the Black Sea after Russian sanctions evasion efforts led to them operating outside of permitted areas. The incident highlights a systemic issue with Russian regulators failing to enforce international obligations under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).
Greenpeace conducted monitoring and analysis, revealing that the tankers were operating with invalid documents, with Volgoneft-239 listed as "Documents suspended" in the RCS register. Despite this, the vessel still loaded 4,300 metric tons of petroleum product and sailed despite its expired operating season. The Kerch Strait Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) and the harbor master of Port Kavkaz failed to prevent the tankers from remaining in prohibited waters and anchoring, despite receiving warnings about the storm's intensifying conditions.
The systemic problem is further evidenced by 50 other mixed river-sea vessels sheltering alongside the two tankers, and 11 Volgoneft-class tankers operating in violation of restrictions in late 2024 and early 2025.
Written by urgent.news from The Insider's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
