Russia declared a federal emergency on Thursday over an oil spill caused by two Russian tankers in the Black Sea, the Emergencies Ministry said. The tankers were hit by a storm on Dec. 15. One split in half and the other ran aground.

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.

Video appears to show one of the tankers broken in half and sinking amid a heavy storm, with oil visible in the water.

Authorities in Russia's southern Krasnodar region on Wednesday declared a region-wide emergency, saying that oil was still washing up on the coastline 10 days after two ageing tankers ran into trouble.

Some 3,700 tons of low-grade fuel oil have spilled into the Black Sea since two Russian oil tankers were severely damaged in a storm on Dec. 15.

In the wake of a significant oil spill along Russia's Black Sea coast, volunteers have released a video appealing directly to President Vladimir Putin for urgent federal assistance. The environmental disaster,

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.

Crimean activists warn that the situation on the occupied peninsula could be even worse than on the Russian side of the Black Sea coast. According to one of them, the consequences of the oil spill on the Crimean beaches are more dangerous than in the Russian city of Anapa.