Russia has declared a federal state of emergency in response to an ongoing oil spill in the Kerch Strait, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Aleksandr Kurenkov announced on Dec. 26. The crisis began when two Russian oil tankers,

Crimean activists warn that the situation on the occupied peninsula could be even worse than on the Russian side of the Black Sea coast. According to one of them, the consequences of the oil spill on the Crimean beaches are more dangerous than in the Russian city of Anapa.

Russian federal officials have declared a state of emergency in response to last week’s oil spill in the Black Sea, where a storm in the Kerch Strait caused two tankers to crash. Cleanup efforts have been underway since the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 first sank on December 15.