russians must bear responsibility for the huge environmental disaster in the Kerch Strait. This was stated by Svitlana Grynchuk, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, during an online meeting with Mircea Feket, Minister of Environment, Water Resources and Forest of Romania, and Petar Dimitrov, Minister of Environment and Water of Bulgaria. They exchanged information and coordinated further actions.

"According to preliminary estimates of the SEI, the fuel oil leak has caused damage to the Black Sea ecosystem of more than USD 14 billion. It will definitely change after the data of the disaster is clarified," said Svitlana Grynchuk.

The Ministers of Environment of Romania and Bulgaria shared their information on the consequences of the accident. "We are now waiting for better weather conditions to obtain high-quality satellite images necessary for analysing the situation and more detailed modeling.

Also today, an interagency meeting was held with the participation of experts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ukrainian Scientific Centre of Ecology of Sea, the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, the State Service of Maritime, Inland Waterway Transport and Shipping of Ukraine, and Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority.

"Each of the bodies involved is actively working to build an evidence base and assess the scale of the environmental disaster. The main efforts are aimed at documenting the facts of pollution, simulating the spread of pollution and assessing its impact on ecosystems," said Svitlana Grynchuk.

According to her, appeals have already been prepared to the Permanent Secretariat of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution with a report on the incident and a proposal to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Commission and conduct an independent examination of the state of the waters, bottom sediments and marine ecosystem. Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development, we are currently preparing an appeal to the relevant UN conventions, UNEP, UNESCO, the European Union, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).