Chinese cargo ship runs aground on Russia’s Sakhalin but no spill reported

The governor of Russia’s Pacific island region of Sakhalin has declared an emergency after a Chinese cargo ship ran aground off its southwest coast.

There was no danger to the crew of the An Yang 2, which is carrying coal and heavy fuel oil, Gov. Valery Limarenko said in a post on Telegram yesterday [Macau time]. Russia’s emergencies ministry said 20 crew were aboard.

Limarenko said that no fuel spillage was recorded, but local authorities had to be prepared for any scenario. Bad weather has prevented access by rescue teams to the bulk carrier, which is stranded in shallow waters off Sakhalin’s Nevelsky district, he added.

Regional authorities said they were preparing to pump fuel out of the damaged vessel, marooned some 200 meters offshore.

Earlier this year, hundreds of volunteers in southwestern Russia spent weeks trying to contain a massive fuel oil spill from two storm-stricken tankers in the Kerch Strait near Crimea.

The Sakhalin region, which is located in Russia’s Far East, comprises a large island of the same name and the four Kuril Islands, the subject of a decades-long territorial dispute between Russia and Japan that has prevented them from signing a peace treaty at the end of World War II.

Soviet troops captured the islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, at the end of the war, and Russia has retained control ever since. MDT/AP