Earlier, Ukraine could analyze and monitor such an environmental catastrophe as oil spill, because the Russian port of Novorossiysk is located near Crimea. But after Russia had occupied the peninsula, Ukrainian scientists were deprived of the opportunity to do such work.
Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into an oil spill off the country's Black Sea coast that appeared to be far bigger than initially thought.
Small island nations face an existential and developmental threat from ship-source pollution endangering their vulnerable marine ecosystems and ocean economies. An effective international legal regime can help.