British icebreaker stops at “Vernadskyi” station (photo)
28.04.2025 - 13:51
The crew of the British icebreaker “Sir David Attenborough” visited the Ukrainian Antarctic station.
This weekend, scientists and the crew of the British research vessel “Sir David Attenborough” visited the station “Akademik Vernadskyi”, the National Antarctic Research Center reports.
The icebreaker “Sir David Attenborough” replaced the icebreaker “James Clark Ross”, which Ukraine acquired and renamed “Noosphere”.
“The British thanked our team for preserving their former station “Faraday”, which, according to them, “has a special soul”. Among the visitors was experienced polar explorer Mark Clilverd, who wintered as a geophysicist on the “Faraday” for two years (1985-86). He even showed himself in joint photos stored at the station,” the scientific center reported.
The Ukrainian expedition was also invited to a tour of the icebreaker “Sir David Attenborough”.
“This is a modern research vessel worth 200 million pounds, which made its first voyage to Antarctica in 2021. It even has space for two helicopters,” the polar explorers note.
Ukrainian polar explorers thanked the guests for the support that the United Kingdom provides to Ukraine. In particular, they presented caps and chevrons with the expedition’s emblem, as well as stickers with “combat penguins” (professions of polar explorers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine), which interested the British.
As previously reported by USM, the annual rotation at the Ukrainian Antarctic Station “Akademik Vernadskyi” ended on March 22. During the rotation, the 29th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition (UAE) handed over the shift to the team of the 30th. “Noosfera” took Ukrainian researchers out after a year of wintering.
