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Black Sea oil spill volunteers in Russia ask Putin to send immediate aid

Volunteers helping to clean up a significant oil spill along Russia's Black Sea coast appealed in a video released on Monday for President Vladimir Putin to urgently send out federal aid, stating that they and local authorities were overwhelmed.

The contamination, which has coated sandy beaches at and around Anapa, a popular summer season resort, has actually triggered serious issues for seabirds and everything from dolphins to cetaceans.

The oil is from two ageing tankers hit by a storm on Dec. 15. Among the vessels split in half, while the other ran aground.

On Thursday, Putin called the incident an ecological catastrophe and authorities from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry say over 10,000 individuals are now involved in the clean-up.

However a group of around 30 regional volunteers, who recorded their appeal on a beach strewn with sacks full of polluted sand, told Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that they thought the scale of the disaster was too huge for local authorities to cope and demanded Moscow send urgent aid.

The regional authorities do not have the expert resources and technical methods to neutralise the consequences of such a large-scale catastrophe and have been required to compensate for the absence of manpower by utilizing volunteers with shovels, a. spokesperson for the group said, reading out a list of demands.

He said professional clean-up workers required to be sent in. in addition to scientists specialising in contamination and. veterinarians to deal with seabirds. Russia, he stated, should also. attract other nations for assist with equipment.

This is a cry from the soul. Such a catastrophe can not be. defeated with shovels, a female volunteer added in the same. video appeal.

Alexander Kozlov, the minister for natural deposits and. ecology, checked out Anapa on Monday to oversee the clean-up and. stated that 366 products of equipment were being used in the. operation.

State television said 40 km (25 miles) of coastline had already been. cleaned, but Kozlov stated the weather were hard. which oil was still washing up on beaches in spite of the. erection of barriers at sea to try to keep it from the coast.

Scuba divers were due to examine among the tankers that entered into. problem on Dec. 15 to see if it was still leaking oil.

State TV stated six dead dolphins had washed up on the coast. in the last 24 hr which an over night storm had actually ripped open. sacks loaded with polluted sand gathered by volunteers.

(source: Reuters)