22 April 2026

The fire in the port of Tuapse, which has been burning for three days, filling the sky with thick black smoke, threatens an environmental disaster along Russia’s Black Sea coast.

Smog from the burning oil terminal, which reached Stavropol the day before, reached Sochi on Wednesday, according to environmentalist Georgy Kavanosyan, who posted photos of local residents. Some of the harmful emissions are not completely burned and could fall on Sochi and other areas as rain, including acid rain, another environmentalist, who asked not to be named, told Agency.

“A large amount of combustion products containing nitrogen and sulfur oxides are released into the air. As water vapor saturates the atmosphere, they convert into nitric, sulfuric, or sulfurous acids and fall as rain,” he explained. According to the expert, this smog poses a health threat to residents of the regions it passes over. Residents of Tuapse and  nearby villages  reported “oil rain” in the city. They reported that the city streets were covered with an oily film and black balls, resembling oil spills.

Rospotrebnadzor urged people to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary and to keep windows closed. At the same time, it stated that no excess levels of harmful substances in the air were detected.

Kavanosyan believes the smog from the burning oil storage facilities at the Tuapse refinery will spread further. “Krasnodar is approaching,” he noted. A local environmental activist with the handle “KRD_eXplorer” also wrote about this. According to NASA Worldview satellite images from April 21, the smoke has already stretched 300 kilometers and reached Armavir.

According  to ecologist Evgeny Vitishko, air pollution from the Tuapse fire is the “largest environmental disaster in the region” in recent memory, which will negatively impact the environment for several years unless urgent action is taken.

In addition to the harmful emissions, an oil slick covering approximately 10,000 square meters was discovered in the Black Sea near the port of Tuapse on Monday. Authorities announced the deployment of booms and the deployment of six vessels to clean up the spill. Similar work is underway at the mouth of the Tuapse River, where oil products have also spilled.

Meanwhile, the fire at the Tuapse sea terminal, which started on April 20 as a result of Ukrainian drone strikes, is still being extinguished, according to the Kuban regional task force. “276 people and 77 pieces of equipment are involved in the work, including from the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Krasnodar Krai,” the authorities reported.

https://ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/22/sochi-grozyat-dozhdi-iz-sernoi-kisloti-iz-za-pozhara-na-tuapsinskom-npz-a193411