CNN
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Volunteers helping clean up the oil spill on Russia’s Black Sea coast are asking Russian President Vladimir Putin for more support as they grapple with environmental devastation along more than 35 miles of coastline.

According to Russian state media, two Russian tankers carrying thousands of tons of fuel were badly damaged in stormy weather near the Black Sea earlier this month, leading to an oil spill. According to TASS, the tankers were carrying more than 9,000 tons of oil, much of which ended up in the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and annexed Crimea.

Putin last week called the oil spill an “environmental disaster.”

According to Greenpeace Ukraine, at least 3,700 tons of heavy oil were spilled, but the actual amount could be higher. Video from the scene showed blackened waves washing the heavy fuel oil known as mazut onto rocky shores. In one video, a bird was seen with its wings full of oil, screaming in despair as it was hit by the waves, unable to lift its wings and fly away.

In a video message to the Russian president and prime minister on Tuesday, volunteers said local authorities in Russia’s Krasnodar region did not have the resources to clean up the oil spill.

“The local authorities can’t cope with it, they don’t have the resources for it. The only resource is ordinary people with shovels, such a disaster cannot be defeated with shovels!” said a volunteer in the video as he called for federal funds and specialists to be sent to the region. They also called for the deployment of foreign specialists and warned that the level of pollution would have international repercussions.

“It was recently announced that 5,000 volunteers and rescuers are working to clean up the aftermath. We believe that in such a huge disaster area, not even 50,000 people with shovels will be able to solve the problem and save the situation,” the volunteer added.

On Thursday, Putin suggested that the ships’ captains were responsible for the incident. “Why do I say this is a major catastrophe and a catastrophe? Because almost 40% of the fuel has leaked,” he said, adding that efforts to salvage the ships were being hampered by the ongoing storm.

The Russian Investigative Committee will open a criminal case into the incident, Russian state media TASS reported.