All news

Russian military to collect 2,000 tonnes of scrap metal on Novaya Zemlya archipelago

A team of 94 servicemen is heading for the Novaya Zemlya archipelago to clear the Defense Ministry’s land in the Arctic zone

MOSCOW, May 31. /TASS/. The Russian military will collect more than 2,000 tonnes of scrap metal on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, Deputy Defense Minister General Dmitry Bulgakov told reporters on Wednesday.

"A team of 94 servicemen of the 12th Chief Department at the Russian Defense Ministry has taken a military-transport flight on board Ilyushin Il-76MD from the Chkalovsky aerodrome (near Moscow) heading for the Novaya Zemlya archipelago to clear the Defense Ministry’s land in the Arctic zone," he said.

"The military will collect and evacuate more than 2,000 tonnes of scrap metal, will restore 11.5 hectares and will put down 59 buildings," the general said, adding the ecology works will be organized in Belushya Guba, Rogachevo and Severnyi.

This year, he continued, works to clear military bases and shooting ranges are organized on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and on Novosibirskiye Islands, as well as at other locations in the Arctic zone. The military plan to collect more than 3.9 thousand tonnes of scrap metal there.

Between June 1 and October 1, 2016, the Russian military collected in the Arctic zone 6,054 tonnes of scrap metal and evacuated 4,778 tonnes to the mainland.