A wave of cancellations is sweeping through spas and children's camps in Anapa, a Russian town on the Black Sea, as many Russians abandon their holiday plans in the southern Krasnodar region because of pollution from a huge December 2024 oil spill washing onto the beaches.

According to the Telegram channel Kub Mash, "parents don't want to send their children to the hazardous coastline." It also reported that companies that had issued travel vouchers to employees as bonuses were now demanding refunds.

Speaking to the Russian paper Parlamentskaya Gazeta, the head of Russia's State Duma Committee on Family Affairs, Nina Ostanina, said that bookings at Anapa's children's recreation and health retreats had plummeted by more than 27% in January and 40% for the summer.

The oil spillbegan when a storm hit two aging Russian tankers traveling through the Kerch Strait, which separates Russia from the Crimea, a peninsula in Ukraine currently occupied by Russia. One ship sank and the other was damaged when it ran aground.

Fuel oil continues to leak into the sea from the sunken tanker with Russian authorities reporting that they couldn't weld the damaged part of the ship closed because it was too close to the oil.

According to official reports, up to 5,000 of the 9,200 tons of mazut, a heavy, low-quality........

© Deutsche Welle