Possible environmental solutions to oil spills in the Black Sea due to the Russian invasion (on the examples of the U.S. and international experience dealing with oil spills)

Abstract

The Black Sea is an inland sea, that is basically isolated from the World Ocean. Even though it is connected only with the Mediterranean Sea through the Turkish Straits, the Black Sea is very environmentally vulnerable. Armed conflict invariably has a negative impact on nature. Oil spills that happened because of Russian invasion have radically changed the ecosystems of the Black Sea, and subsequently seriously threatened its biodiversity, and ecosystem as a whole. During the last 20-30 years, even before the full-scale Russian invasion, specialists of the Ukrainian Scientific Center for Marine Ecology, together with the EMBLAS project, were deeply worried about changes in the Black Sea [1].
 Even more rapid change in the Black Sea ecosystem happened in June 2022 when Russian forces used two anti-ship missiles to target an abandoned cargo tanker adrift in the northern Black Sea. The vessel was loaded with around 600 tons of diesel fuel. The abandoned tankers, with thousands of barrels of diesel fuel, constituted an “environmental time bomb [2].” 
 As to the existing framework, in 1992, six coastal countries (Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine) signed and ratified the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea from Pollution. Since then, the Black Sea Pollution Protection Commission has been responsible for the sustainable management of the Black Sea. The real effectiveness of this Commission turned out to be very low considering the fact that not a single act was adopted for the preservation of the Black Sea in terms of Russian invasion since February 24th 2022.
 Indeed, there is some legal protection for nature under the laws of armed conflict too, although these laws are ambiguous and have strict limitations. For instance, there is a set of Draft Principles for environmental preservation in relation to armed conflict, which was just adopted by the UN International Law Commission. 
 Thus, in the absence of adequate international mechanisms to address oil spills immediately, it is worth to take into account well established US Response System as the federal government mechanism to respond to discharges of oil into navigable waters of the US. While this system functions through a cooperative network of federal, state, and local agencies, Ukraine lacks this coordinated cooperation, and cannot respond properly to the significant contamination of the Black Sea.
 Thus, we will reveal the existing international mechanisms to combat oil spills. Then, we will mainly focus on US Governing policies that deal with oil spills on the Exxon Valdez oil spill example, applying it to the existing policies in Ukraine.