Oil spills into Kerch Strait after Russian tanker breaks off during storm

Russian officials say a Russian tanker carrying thousands of tons of oil products broke apart Sunday during a fierce storm, causing crude oil to spill into the Kerch Strait and putting another tanker in jeopardy due to damage.

Reuters reported that the two tankers sent distress signals as they passed through the Kerch Strait, which connects Russia and Crimea.

The Kerch Strait is a strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov between the Kerch Peninsula in the Crimea region and the Taman Peninsula in the Krasnodar Territory of Russia. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The Volgoneft 212, a 136-meter-long oil tanker carrying 15 people, broke in two and sank its bow, killing at least one person.

The report said Volganev 212 was carrying 4,200 tons of fuel.

Officials said the Russian-flagged tanker, built in 1969, had been damaged and run aground. The unverified Telegram video showed the appearance of contaminated water and a semi-sunken oil tanker in rough seas.

The emergency Services Department noted that one person died on the first tanker and 12 people were evacuated. TASS quoted an assistant health minister as saying 11 people had been taken to hospital, two of them in serious condition.

Another Russian-flagged 132-meter-long tanker, Volgoneft 239, was adrift after being damaged, with Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry noting that the ship, built in 1973, had 14 crew members on board.

The evacuation of the crew of the second tanker was suspended due to bad weather.

Russian investigators have opened two criminal cases into possible security violations.

The Kerch Strait is an important route for Russia's grain exports, as well as crude oil, fuel oil and liquefied natural gas exports.

In September, Ukraine accused Russia in an international court of flouting the law of the sea and trying to control the Kerch Strait on its own, a charge Moscow denies as baseless.