Shadow Tanker Oil Spill Kills Hundreds of Birds in Azov Strait

Wildlife protection teams are cleaning waterfowl by hand. Russian authorities initially warned local waters and wetlands were badly polluted. Then they deleted the announcement. Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Illustrative photo. This aerial picture taken on Oct. 1, 2025 off the coast of the western France port of Saint-Nazaire shows the tanker Boracay from Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.” (Photo by Damien MEYER / AFP) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google An oil spill by the site of a sunken shadow tanker next to Russia’s ecologically sensitive Black Sea shore has killed more than 500 birds and hundreds more are too contaminated to survive, a Russian wildlife protection group announced on Sunday. Portions of a 100-square-kilometer (38.6-square-mile) slick had come ashore near the Russian resort city Anapa over the weekend and rescue teams had found, washed ashore with bitumen and crude, hundreds of waterfowl unable to fly, walk or swim, the independent news agency SOTA reported on Monday. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . Satellite images reviewed by Kyiv Post confirmed the slick’s presence and its slow movement in a south-westerly direction. A Monday statement published by the NGO Anapa Kurorti, a tourist industry monitoring group, said that the center of the slick was 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) offshore. Volunteer environmental protection groups were using soap and water to clean birds by hand, but large numbers were affected and limited washing facilities had left hundreds of birds with little chance of survival, a statement from the group Zhemchuzhnaya Rehabilitation Center (ZRC) said. Images published by that group and the independent Astra news agency showed white-coated volunteers wearing surgical masks while using faucets and soap to wash birds covered in black goo in sinks. So many had been brought in over the weekend that birds were dying for lack of people to wash them, a Sunday ZRC statement said. Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Hits Russian Radar Systems, Air Defense Units in Crimea, Belgorod Region Ukraine’s military said it struck multiple Russian radar stations and an air defense system as part of efforts to degrade Moscow’s air defenses. Volunteer worker cleans a probable Great Crested Grebe soiled by oil at a facility in Vitayezovo Russia. (Image published by the Zhemchuzhnaya Rehabilitsioniy Tsentr (ZRC) wildlife assistance center on Sunday) A Saturday public appeal by ZRC administrators said in part: “People are urgently needed to help birds in Vityazevo [where the birds were being cleaned]…the situation is dire. There are a lot of birds in oil. They keep bringing them in nonstop. Boxes are stacked one after another, with more arriving. And right now, the main problem isn’t just the supplies, but the lack of people willing to help. People who can wash the birds are desperately needed. This isn’t a story about ‘later’ or ‘someone else will do it.’ Help is needed right now… Every hand is worth its weight in gold right now. Without people, we simply can’t keep up.” Reports were conflicting on the cause of the spill. Two Russian Volgoneft-class oil tankers – the Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 – were severely damaged and partially or fully sunk near the Kerch Strait offshore Anapa on Dec. 15, 2024, during a severe storm, one about 80 meters (262 feet) from the high-waterline. Both were shadow tankers more than half a century old, loaded with Russian oil to be exported abroad illicitly. When the vessels broke apart, the initial spill covered 60 kilometers (37 miles) of coastline. Russian authorities have not cleaned up the wrecks, and leaks continue. The Krasnodar Regional Administration on Friday, April 10, issued a statement via its Operational Staff information platform that acknowledged a “new” oil spill in local waters had taken place and that local wildlife and wetlands had been affected. The announcement suggested a Ukrainian drone attack striking a moving tanker had caused the spill, and blamed stormy weather conditions for the deposit of a “small amount” of oil on local beaches. Booms to contain the spill were being deployed and wildlife officials had “treated a light-fraction oil slick” with a “biosorbent,” the official Russian government statement said. Ukrainian air strike records compiled by Kyiv Post showed two Ukrainian drone attacks confirmed to have hit targets in Russia’s Krasnodar region since Thursday: A mass kamikaze drone raid that struck and set afire an oil pipeline pumping and control center in the city of Krymsk overnight April 8-9, and a somewhat smaller follow-up strike on the same land-locked target on April 10-11. The pumping station is more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) inland from the closest shoreline, near the city of Novorossiysk, and is more than 40 sea miles southeast of Anapa. Krasnodar authorities deleted the post blaming Ukrainian drones on Sunday. Portions of the spill coming ashore were most densely concentrated along the Anapa Cape, a protected shore region in pre-war times popular with tourists, the Astra news agency reported on Monday. The more likely cause of the spill was not from the sunken shadow tankers, but from a passing ship or ships violating ecological protection law, that source said. Boxes with birds recovering from severe oil contamination fill a room at at a facility in Vitayezovo Russia. The Russian word in the winged heart on the wall, “Жизнь” (Zhyzn), means “Life.” (Image published by the Zhemchuzhnaya Rehabilitsioniy Tsentr (ZRC) wildlife assistance center on Sunday) “We are looking at two possible causes, one is a spill during transfer from tanker to tanker, and the second is an attack by drone on a ship,” Igor Shryadiuk, Center of the civilian Center for the Protection of Wild Nature, was quoted as saying. Ukrainian drones on April 3 struck and seriously damaged a Russian bulk cargo ship called the Volga-Balt 138 in the Azov Sea, which had been loaded with grain but also had about 100 tons of fuel oil in its bunkers. The crew ran the vessel aground near the town of Temryuk, where it sank. A large resort village, Temryuk is some 130 kilometers (81 miles) north of Anapa by sea. An April 7 underwater inspection of the Volga-Balt’s hull found no breaches, Temryuk authorities said. According to Ukrainian intelligence reports, a common means by which sanctioned Russian oil exports reach international markets via the Black Sea is by transfer of the oil from a riverine tanker that loaded the crude deep inside Russia, to an unsanctioned ocean-going tanker at sea, often near the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait and towns like Temryuk and Anapa. News of a possible renewed major spill near Anapa first reached public information platforms on April 7, with the ZRC reporting that more than 200 oiled birds had been brought in by volunteers for cleaning. More than 500 birds were undergoing treatment on Monday, and with more birds still being brought in, volunteers said. Russian wildlife assistance volunteer shows a probable Great Cormorant soiled by oil, prior to cleaning at a facility in Vitayezovo Russia. (Image published by the Zhemchuzhnaya Rehabilitsioniy Tsentr (ZRC) wildlife assistance center on Sunday) The Russian state news agency TASS, in a Saturday report, citing a cetologist (whale biologist) from the Scientific-Ecological Center for the Protection of Dolphins (usually called “Delf”) has observed a spike in dolphin deaths in the Black and Azov Seas with 132 animals found dead in March, with the greatest concentrations observed near the Russian naval and oil port Novorossiysk. Delf spokesperson Tatiana Beley, in the report, said that sea pollution was a factor in increasing dolphin die-off, but shrinking flounder populations were the primary cause. Although oil spills are damaging, the most significant causes of sea pollution on Russia’s Black Sea shore are industrial and agricultural run-off, Beley said. Stefan Korshak is the Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent. He is from Houston Texas, is a Yalie and since the mid-1990s has worked as correspondent/photographer for newswire, newspapers, television and radio. He has reported from five wars but most enjoys doing articles on wildlife and nature. You can read his weekly blog on the Russo-Ukraine War on Facebook, Substack and Medium. His new book on the 2022 Siege of Mariupol is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US .