Volunteers are grappling with environmental havoc across more than 35 miles of coastline, after at least 3,700 tons of heavy oil spilled into the Kerch Strait.

Volunteers helping to clean up a major oil spill along Russia's Black Sea coast appealed in a video released on Monday for President Vladimir Putin to urgently send federal aid, saying that they and local authorities were overwhelmed.

A major environmental disaster is unfolding along southern Russia’s Black Sea coast after a storm damaged two oil tankers last weekend, spilling thousands of tons of heavy fuel that has now washed ashore.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding talks with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in Moscow, state TV channel Rossiya 24 reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his evening address on Monday, 23 December, has once again criticised Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who on 22 December held talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin regarding gas supplies.

By bne Berlin bureau Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico made a surprise trip to Moscow on December 22 to hold rare face to face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he seeks to secure gas deliveries ahead of the end of the Ukrainiangas transit deal next week,