“Сontained” Black Sea oil spill drifting from Russia’s Novorossiysk toward occupied Crimea

Experts from the organization Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe have examined satellite images and found that an oil spill in the Black Sea, first reported on Aug. 29 off the coast of Russia's Novorossiysk, continues to spread. Using images from the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites, The Insider was able to verify that the slick is already approaching the Kerch Strait.

Greenpeace has published images from Aug. 29 (the day of the spill), Aug. 30, and Sept. 1. The first two images clearly show that a large oil slick traveled from the spill site off the coast of Novorossiysk towards the Russian Black Sea city of Anapa. According to calculations by The Insider, the area of the slick near Novorossiysk on the day of the spill was approximately 43 square kilometers (Greenpeace estimates around 50 square kilometers). By Sept. 1, the oil slick had reached Crimea — just east of Cape Opuk at the southern entrance to the Kerch Strait. The oil moved along the coast between Abrau-Dyurso and the Utrish Nature Reserve.