The Crimea (South Ukraine) is ready to receive holiday-makers despite consequences of the catastrophe that occurred in the autumn 2007, Deputy Environment Protection Minister Dmytro Hurskyi stated.
"There is no threat of disrupting the resort season", Hurskyi said, having emphasized that the vacationers "will be swimming in the clear sea water" and will not get dirty from black oil on the beaches.
Today, the Crimean Emergency Ministry Department spread a statement that rumors about the global pollution of the Gulf of Kerch are greatly exaggerated.
Presently, the seabed to the total area of 20 thousand sq m was examined and no pollution was detected. The Emergency Ministry said that there is no oil spills on the sea surface. No deaths of birds, fish and other animals observed.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian authorities will go to the court to bring an action against owners of the Russian ships claiming to repair the damages from the oil products spill in the Gulf of Kerch. Dmytro Hurskyi informed that the Russian party registered a similar claim against ship owners on repairing damages from pollution of the Gulf of Kerch's water area that will be considered in the court of St. Petersburg on June 24.
On April 6, the Crimean organization of the Green Party spread a statement that four thousand of black oil mixture is lying in the Kerch port till the present time.
On November 11, 2007, as a result of an accident with Russian tanker VolgoNeft-139 in the southern part of the Gulf of Kerch about 1.3 thousand tons of black oil got into the sea and 6.8 thousand tons of technical sulfur - from the sunk dry cargo ships VolnoGorsk, Nakhichevan and Kovel.
The extent of damage is estimated in Ukraine at USD 1 billion 428 thousand, plus USD 88,334 million (1 USD - 5.05 UAH) of damage caused to land resources of the Crimean peninsula.
