MV Volgoneft-212 (Волгонефть-212) was a Project 1577 Volgoneft oil tanker that was built in the Soviet Union in 1969.

Project 1577 is a Soviet design of tanker that was intended for "mixed navigation": operating on the canals and large navigable rivers of European Russia; and also short-sea shipping in favourable sea conditions, with waves no more than 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) high.

[4] One Russian source stated that Volgoneft-212 was unfit for service in sea conditions with waves more than 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) high.

In seas any higher than 2.5 metres, waves could lift her fore and aft, and leave her unsupported amidships, which could cause her structural damage.

On the morning of 15 December 2024, a storm caught Volgoneft-212 and one of her sister ships, Volgoneft-239, in the Black Sea just south of the Kerch Strait.

She was fully laden with a cargo of about 4,300 tons of mazut, and this started leaking into the sea.

[7] Volgoneft-239 was damaged; drifted; and grounded about 80 metres (260 ft) from the shore near Taman in Krasnodar Krai.

[9] Within hours, after it was known that a member of Volgoneft-212's crew died, the IC reclassified its investigation into the loss of that ship to the more serious offence of "Violation of the rules and operation of maritime transport, resulting in the death of a person by negligence".

[13] Also on 19 December, in his annual "Results of the Year" news conference, President Vladimir Putin blamed the two captains.