A race is on to clean up shorelines off Crimea after tons of oil spills from damaged Russian ships

Cleanup continues in the Kerch Strait near Russian-occupied Crimea, a week after at least 3,700 tons of low-grade fuel oil spilled out of two storm-stricken Russian tankers. Russia’s state Tass news agency says that by Sunday afternoon, more than 12,000 tons of contaminated soil had been removed along 34 kilometers (21 miles) of shoreline. Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said oil continued to wash up along the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Russian authorities were still working to assess the spill’s consequences. The Kerch Strait separates the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia and is an important global shipping route.