A severe storm broke a Russian oil tanker in two between the Azov and Black Seas on Sunday, spilling fuel oil in what a Russian official said was an "environmental disaster".
Russia's state-run Vesti-24 channel quoted the latest data from state environment agency Rosprirodnadzor as saying some 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil had spilt.
But Emergencies Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov told Reuters not more than 1,200 tonnes had leaked into the sea.
Thirteen crew members were drifting aboard the ship's stern and several other ships were also in trouble in the Kerch strait, a busy waterway running between the Azov and Black Seas.
Efforts to reach them were hampered by the storm, which was gaining force.
"The wind is now blowing in the direction of Ukraine's coast, so it is our common problem," Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Russia's environment agency Rosprirodnadzor told Vesti-24.
"This problem may take a few years to solve. Fuel oil is a heavy substance and it is now sinking to the seabed," he said.
"This is a very serious environmental disaster."
The tanker, Volganeft-139, was on its way from the port of Azov in the southern Russian region of Rostov to Kerch in Ukraine's eastern Crimea when high waves broke its hull at around 0445 (0145 GMT) on Sunday, Russian media reported.
The tanker, designed primarily for rivers and in service since 1978, was carrying 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil in total, officials were quoted by media as saying.
The likely effects of the spill were not immediately clear. A spill over 700 tonnes is considered large, but the biggest ones run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands.
Almost at the same time as the Volganeft-139 broke up, a freighter carrying 2,000 tonnes of sulphur sank in the same storm, off the port of Kavkaz overlooking the Kerch Strait from the Russian side.
Its crew of nine had been rescued after drifting in a raft for a few hours. "Sulphur is a very inert chemical, and we hope that in the water it will not form any substances dangerous to humans," Mitvol said.
Several hours later, another freighter carrying sulphur sank off Kavkaz, Interfax news agency quoted the port administration as saying, adding three of its crew had been rescued by a Ukrainian ship. The fate of the other eight was unclear.
The hull of another oil tanker, Volganeft-123, cracked after being hit by high waves. Maxim Stepanenko, Novorossiisk transport prosecutor, told Russian television this tanker was afloat and its oil products were not leaking.
"All the captains in the strait were warned about the storm at 1715 (1415 GMT) on Nov. 10," Stepanenko said. "All of them had enough time to leave the dangerous area."
A Georgian freighter and a Turkish one were also stranded off the nearby Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, RIA news agency quoted port chief Vladimir Yerygin as saying. Both crews were safe, he said.
© 2007 Reuters, Click for Restrictions
Not again... 