The Black Sea is facing its most serious ecological threat for years after a fierce storm sank five ships, including an oil tanker and bulk carriers laden with sulphur.

Fuel barges were also washed ashore by the heavy seas and more than 20 sailors were swept from their vessels. At least 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil spilt into the water when a tanker broke up in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, between Russia and Ukraine.

Three ships carrying a total of 6,500 tonnes of sulphur sank close to the Russian town of Port Kavkaz as 70mph (110km/h) winds and 18ft (6m) waves battered the Black Sea coast. Another 40 vessels were evacuated from the port. Fifteen crew were missing from a cargo ship that went down near the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol. Four other ships, including two barges loaded with oil, also ran aground during the storms on Sunday, when at least 35 crew members were rescued.

Environmental groups said that the region faced its most serious ecological threat for years. Vladimir Chuprov, a spokesman for Greenpeace in Russia, said: “Fuel oil will settle on the seabed and cause hydrocarbons to permeate the Sea of Azov. This will lead to a shortage of oxygen in the water and the unique fauna will suffer greatly.”

Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Russian state environmental watchdog, said that the seabed could be polluted for up to 15 years without strenuous efforts to clear the oil away.

About a hundred workers at Ilyich, half way between Kavkaz and Novorossiisk, used shovels and a bulldozer to remove oil that had washed up along an eight-mile stretch of sand.

As many as a thousand birds lay on the beach coated in oil and unable to fly. Workers said that the birds were being attacked by wild dogs. Russian environmental officials said that the sulphur did not appear to pose any immediate environmental danger. The polluted area lies along the migration route from central Siberia to the Black Sea for Siberian diver birds.

The bodies of three sailors, all wearing life jackets, were found yesterday near the island of Tuzla, in southern Russia, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. They were among eight missing crew of the Nakhichevan, one of the freighters that sank with its cargo of sulphur. Ships and helicopters scoured the area to find survivors as warnings of a second storm were issued. Officials in Novorossiisk, the second-biggest oil exporting port in Russia, told tankers not to dock because of the deteriorating weather.

President Putin ordered Viktor Zubkov, the Prime Minister, to fly to southern Russia to oversee recovery operations. The fresh storm warning forced the suspension of operations to recover the Volgoneft-139 tanker, which was loaded with 4,800 tonnes of oil when it broke up. Recovery crews would try to pump the remaining oil off the tanker once the weather improved, then tow it into port. The vessel’s 13 crew were all rescued.

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