Moscow: The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Transport (Rostransnadzor) will conduct unscheduled inspections of water transport facilities in the Azov-Black Sea basin following an oil spill caused by the tanker incidents in the Kerch Strait in December, Russia's ministry of transport said on Wednesday.

According to Namibia Press Agency, "Rostransnadzor will inspect the safety of water transport facilities in the Azov-Black Sea basin, with a particular focus on loading and unloading operations involving hazardous cargo," the ministry said in a statement.

The main purpose of the inspections is to prevent similar sea pollution by eliminating violations in advance. Compliance with legislation in the region's ports will also be monitored, the ministry added.

On December 15, two Russian fuel oil-laden tankers, the Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, wrecked in the Kerch Strait during a storm. One of the tankers split in half. Twenty-seven sailors were evacuated, one of them died. The Russian Transport Ministry estimated that around 2,400 tonnes of oil products had leaked into the sea. On January 10, fuel oil leaked from the crack in the stern of the Volgoneft-239 tanker, which ran aground near the port of Taman in the Krasnodar Territory.

In early March, the dismantling of the stern of the Volgoneft-239 was completed, and its last structures were removed from Cape Panagia. The Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory suffered from pollution, and a state of emergency was declared in the Kuban area and Crimea.