"Consequences For Ten Years."
- 27.04.2026, 9:32
Environmentalists assess the damage from the ecological disaster in Tuapse.
Over the past ten days, the AFU launched several strikes on an oil refinery and a sea terminal in the Russian city of Tuapse. Oil products spilled into the sea, and smoke from a fire at the refinery spread for hundreds of kilometers. City officials did not acknowledge the problem until April 23, a week after the first oil spill attack. Kuban environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko told Ekhu what consequences this threatens the Tuapse coast.
Vitishko said some of the problems could have been avoided if the authorities had reacted promptly.
"Theoretically, the consequences could have been eliminated quite quickly, but, first of all, the authorities now practically do not recognize that we have an ecological disaster and an ecological situation related to environmental pollution and causing damage, substantial damage to both nature and people. Now, according to my information, they have recognized local pollution, that is, within the central beach of Tuapse, but not on the rest of the territory. And secondly, there is a sensitive situation connected with the fact that all this is happening on the territory of Rosneft, and they do not want to show themselves in any way," Vitishko said.
The environmentalist believes that what happened in Tuapse is the biggest environmental disaster in the region in recent times. The press compares it to the oil spill off the coast of Anapa in 2024, but the disaster in Tuapse is much more dangerous, Vitishko is sure, because here the matter was not limited to oil spill alone.
"This oil rain - more precisely, the air flow that carries soot dust saturated with oil products - it is carried over long distances. It has reached Apsheron, Belorechensk - and according to some reports, Armavir, even Stavropol. So, this is a more global situation, the consequences of which will affect neighboring municipalities as well. And then this precipitation soot will seep into the soil (i.e., it will also be contaminated) and eventually flow back into the sea. That is, this is the consequences for ten years," the ecologist explains.
But, according to him, the oil spill itself should not be underestimated either.
"On April 19, Transparent World published a satellite image, according to which the area of the oil slick was 7 km². But the spill was increasing, the slick was stretching. And after the rain, secondary pollution with oil products, which were collected in the river during the week, was added to it, and they spilled over the booms. It is still unclear how the situation will develop, but I think that in fact the entire coast of Tuapse district will be smeared, which is about 70 kilometers," Vitishko said.