Svetlana Grinchuk emphasized that Russians must take responsibility for the significant environmental disaster in the Kerch Strait.

According to preliminary estimates by the State Ecological Inspection of Ukraine, the oil spill has caused approximately over $14 billion in damages to the Black Sea ecosystem. This figure is expected to change as more details about the disaster are clarified.

I just held an online meeting with Romania's Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests, Mircea Fechet, and Acting Minister of Environment and Water of Bulgaria, Petar Dimitrov. We exchanged the available information and coordinated our next steps.

The ecology ministers of Romania and Bulgaria shared their insights regarding the consequences of the accident. We are currently awaiting improved weather conditions to obtain quality satellite images necessary for analyzing the situation and more detailed modeling.

Additionally, today we conducted an interagency meeting involving specialists from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine / MFA of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Scientific Center for the Ecology of the Sea, the State Ecological Inspection, the State Service of Maritime and Inland Water Transport and Navigation of Ukraine, and the State Enterprise "Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine".

Each of the involved agencies is actively working on building an evidence base and assessing the scale of the ecological disaster. The main efforts are focused on documenting pollution facts, modeling the spread of contamination, and evaluating its impact on ecosystems.

We have already prepared a communication to the Secretariat of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution, reporting the incident and proposing to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Commission and conduct an independent assessment of the state of waters, bottom sediments, and the marine ecosystem.

Currently, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Infrastructure, we are preparing a communication to the relevant UN conventions, UNEP, UNESCO, the European Union, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).