Emergency workers toiling to clean up an oil spill in the Black Sea have detected seven new slicks, a Russian official told the TASS state news agency on Friday, as authorities struggle to mitigate the effects of the nearly month-old disaster.

Fresh oil started pouring from a stricken Russian tanker in the Black Sea on Friday, said officials in Moscow, as Ukraine warned of "terrible environmental consequences" from the spill.

Russia has formed a new government commission to coordinate clean up of the biggest spill of oil products in the Black Sea in recent history.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that more needed to be done to clean up an oil spill in the Black Sea, saying efforts so far appeared to have been insufficient to deal with the ecological disaster.

The Black Sea is home to different cetacean species — some endangered — and it was the site of an oil spill in the middle of December that killed 31 of them.

Russian investigators have determined that an oil spill from two tankers in the Black Sea last month was smaller than initially thought, the Transport Ministry said on Thursday.

In southwestern Russia, thousands of volunteers are cleaning up the beaches polluted by the sinking of two oil tankers in the Black Sea on December 15, 2024. However, scientists and NGOs consider the resources and equipment deployed to be insufficient.

The number of dolphins that have died following the fuel oil spill from Russian tankers in the Kerch Strait has nearly doubled since January 5. — Ukrinform.

Delfa Dolphin Rescue and Research Center says it found 61 dead cetaceans with over half killed 'likely due to fuel oil spill' - Anadolu Ajansı