On December 15, 2024, the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, carrying about 9 thousand tons of fuel oil, sank in the Kerch Strait, Russia. Next day, the consequences of the accident became visible on the beaches of the Anapa coast. The first to clear the shores and wash the birds from fuel oil were not special services, but ordinary people - residents of local cities and nearby villages. Every day, more and more volunteers from different areas of the Krasnodar Territory, and then from all over Russia, joined them.

While the regional authorities were thinking about what to do, local residents, in order to eliminate the consequences of the environmental disaster, began to clean up the oil spilled along the coast with shovels and put the dirty bag in bags. When there were too many bags, they hired special equipment at their own expense, which collected the bags and took them to special landfills.

Along with the beaches, the birds that lived there also suffered. Seabirds got into fuel oil spills and were unable to clean their feathers. Many of them died from intoxication or because they drowned heavily soiled with fuel oil. Volunteers gathered in groups and took the birds to spontaneously organized bird washing headquarters.

The state of emergency was introduced only on the 11th day after the tankers sank.

The tankers were carrying heavy fuel oil of the M100 brand. Having spilled into the sea, it turned into dense mobile lumps on the bottom, small particles in the water column and an oil film on the surface. Experts say that oil products will continue to be washed ashore by storms if government services do not begin collecting them at sea. However, this has not happened yet.