Anapa's pebble beaches are excluded from the emergency zone.
Eight pebble beaches in Anapa, from the village of Bolshoy Utrish to Vysoky Bereg, have been excluded from the emergency zone due to a fuel oil spill. Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing) will decide whether to reopen them.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," the beach lessee in the village of Vityazevo has begun adding a new layer of sand from quarries to a test site. This restoration experience may subsequently be extended to other beaches in the emergency zone. Ecologist Yevgeny Vitishko believes that such actions simply conceal the problem, but do not solve it. Rospotrebnadzor representatives took samples from Miracleon Beach in Vityazevo, which is being refilled with new sand, including samples of the imported sand itself. Telegram users emphasized that the research results, as before, are unlikely to be made public.
The prospects for the 2026 summer tourist season in Anapa remain unclear: on February 4, Rospotrebnadzor head Anna Popova stated that the beaches of Anapa and the Temryuk district are still unsuitable for recreation following the fuel oil spill. Although she did not rule out that the situation could change by the start of the summer season, some bloggers believe that the official's words "put an end to the 2026 season." On February 15, social media users considered that the timeframe proposed by Rospotrebnadzor for reopening Anapa's beaches is unrealistic.
A decision has been made to exclude eight pebble beaches in Anapa, from the village of Bolshoy Utrish to Vysoky Bereg, from the danger zone, Kuban Governor Veniamin Kondratyev announced today on his Telegram channel.
"Provided that water and soil samples continue to meet sanitary standards, we will be able to open these areas for the resort season. The safety of residents and visitors to the region remains our absolute priority," he said.
This does not mean that the pebble beaches are already open, emphasized Anapa Mayor Svetlana Maslova. "But this is a very important step towards this. The next step is up to Rospotrebnadzor. If control water and soil samples continue to meet sanitary standards, these beach areas can be opened for the resort season," she wrote on her Telegram channel.
As a reminder, on April 18, 2025, Rospotrebnadzor declared 141 beaches in Anapa and nine beaches in the Temryuk district unsuitable for recreation.
On December 15, 2024, two tankers carrying fuel oil sank in the Kerch Strait. As a result, a crew member of one of the tankers died. Furthermore, an oil spill occurred, leading to catastrophic environmental consequences, according to the Caucasian Knot report "Fuel Oil Spill in the Kerch Strait".
Materials on the consequences of the fuel oil spill have been collected by the Caucasian Knot on the page "Eco-disaster in Kuban".