The Ukrainian government has decided for the first time to allocate funds for the purchase of an icebreaker to deliver its polar scientists to the Antarctic station “Akademik Vernadsky”. A message about this appeared on the website of the Ministry of Education and Science of the country.
It is noted that until now, specialists have been forced to charter foreign ships for work and get to the South Pole only in the summer. During the coronavirus pandemic, expeditions could be canceled altogether. “The shift was under threat of disruption, and the road lasted more than a month,” the message says.
The decision to buy the vessel was made at a meeting of the Cabinet on July 7. Now it must be approved by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budgetary Issues. The amount of funds allocated and the seller of the icebreaker has not yet been disclosed.
The only icebreaker currently at the disposal of Ukraine is the Kapitan Belousov diesel-electric ship launched in 1953. Until 2017, he was engaged in towing transport vessels in the Sea of Azov in the winter, and now it is in the dock in an unusable condition. Millions of hryvnias are spent annually on its repair and maintenance.
Earlier it became known about the intention of Kiev to sell “Ukraine” – an unfinished heavy missile cruiser, owned by the country since 1993. One of the reasons for abandoning the cruiser is its almost complete equipping with Russian weapons, which are not produced in Ukraine.
