More than 200 birds were found dead or injured on the Black Sea coast near Anapa on April 11–12, the Krasnodar Region operational headquarters reported.
Specialists cited by the headquarters said the birds may have come into contact with an oil slick detected 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Anapa. Krasnodar Region authorities claimed the slick was caused by Ukrainian drone strikes on civilian vessels in the Black and Azov seas.
Staff at the Zhemchuznaya rehabilitation center in Anapa are treating the birds that were covered in oil. The center published photographs of the birds that were found.
In December 2024, two Russian oil product tankers sank in the Kerch Strait while carrying more than nine thousand tons of fuel oil. Authorities and environmental specialists estimated that several thousand tons of oil products spilled into the sea. The fuel oil contaminated dozens of kilometers of coastline in the Krasnodar Region, and among those affected were birds living along the Black Sea.
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