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Pacific Fleet plans Arctic expedition to clean Wrangel Island

Currently, an environmental unit is being formed, the press service informed

TASS, June 6. The Pacific Fleet’s Navy will organize an ecology expedition to the Arctic to clean the Wrangel Island, the Fleet’s press service reported on Monday.

"The Pacific Fleet’s Navy begin to carry out environmental measures to clean the Wrangel Island from waste. Currently, an environmental unit is being formed. It will feature contracted personnel, and civilian personnel of the units and formations in Russia’s North-East. The unit will feature about 50 military personnel and ten items of equipment," the press service said.

The Fleet’s support vessels will take the unit to the island and later will transport the collected waste, including barrels from petroleum products. The waste will be delivered to the mainland for further processing. The ecology unit’s work will continue to November.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry has ordered to begin ecology works in the Russian Arctic Zone from 2015. Since then, the military have collected and transported from the Wrangel Island about 2,200 tonnes of non-ferrous and ferrous scrap metals. In 2021, the military collected and processed about 500 tonnes of waste. The cleanup expeditions work in complicated weather and navigation conditions.