Two suspected oil spills with a combined area of more than 600,000 square metres have been detected in the Caspian Sea near Makhachkala, Daghestan. As of publication, neither Russia’s environmental authorities nor the government of Daghestan had announced an investigation or confirmed the presence of an oil spill. On 25 July, Iran accused Ukraine of attacking one of its merchant vessels in the Caspian Sea, saying one sailor had been killed. Oil and gas shipping routes cross its waters, while Russia’s Caspian coast, including Daghestan, is home to oil terminals and port infrastructure. Environmental organisations regularly detect oil pollution in the sea using satellite monitoring, although determining the source of individual spills is often impossible without further investigation.