A powerful storm in the region between the Black Sea and the Azov Sea led to the breaking of a Russian oil tanker in two on Sunday. The oil spilt after the accident caused what a Russian official labeled as an "environmental disaster."

Some tones of fuel oil were spilt in the water according to Russia's state-run Vesti-24 channel which got the information from state environment agency Rosprirodnadzor. However, the exact quantity of spilt fuel oil is not exactly known as the different sources don’t agree upon it. According to Emergencies Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov’s statement to Reuters, there were no more then 1,200 tones that leaked into the water.

Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Russia's environment agency Rosprirodnadzor, said that solving this environmental disaster might take years especially because the fuel oil, a heavy substance, is sinking to the seabed.

The terrible weather in the Kerch strait, a busy waterway running between the Azov and Black Seas, also caused damages to other ships floating in the area. Two freighters carrying sulphur sank in the same storm. Their crews were fortunately rescued after drifting for a few hours. Two Turkish cargo ships have run aground nearby in the Black Sea.  Another ship, a Russian vessel carrying scrap metal, has sunk outside the Ukraine port of Sevastopol.

"All the captains in the strait were warned about the storm at 1715 (9:15 a.m. Saturday EST) on November 10. All of them had enough time to leave the dangerous area," said Maxim Stepanenko, Novorossiisk transport prosecutor.

According to the latest data released by Russian authorities, 13 crew members of the Volganeft-139 were drifting aboard the ship's stern. Efforts to rescue them were initiated but without success due to the powerful storm that has intensified in the mean time.