The European Commission will send a new team of ecologists to Ukraine to assess the aftermath of the oil spill as a result of the Russian tanker Volganeft-139 crash in the Strait of Kerch storm November 11, 2007, Ukraine's Emergency Situations Minister Volodymyr Shandra told Ukrainian reporters in Brussels Tuesday.

The Ukrainian side is drawing up the estimates of the environmental losses as a result of the 1,300-ton oil spill from the tanker and the leakage of 6,800 tons of sulfur from Volnogorsk, Nakhichevan and Kovel ships in the same storm, the minister said after participating in a marine pollution workshop organized by the European Commission.

The ecologists have described the crashes' consequences as catastrophic. The Azov-Black Sea environmental inspection estimated the losses inflicted by Volganeft-139 alone at USD 898 M.