MURMANSK, April 14. /TASS/. The Yakutia universal nuclear icebreaker of Project 22220 will embark on its inaugural voyage on April 15, Atomflot's Acting Director General Yakov Antonov said.

"April is the most important and busy time of winter-spring navigation. We have been waiting anxiously for the icebreaker to demonstrate itself in April - May as it escorts cargo shipments of the Vostok Oil project and the Northern Sea Route. We plan that the ship departs on the maiden voyage on April 15."

The crew will work in the Yenisei Region of the Kara Sea, he added.

On April 6, the icebreaker sailed out of St. Petersburg for Murmansk, having covered 2,470 nautical miles. The Yakutia icebreaker is the fourth (third serial) vessel of Project 22220, built at the Baltic Shipyard (USC Group) for Atomflot (Rosatom's enterprise). Prior to that, the shipyard has built the Arktika, Sibir and Ural icebreakers and handed them over to the customer. The Yakutia was laid in May, 2020, and was launched in November, 2022. Mooring tests began in May, 2024, in October specialists started working on the nuclear power plant launch, and at the end of that year the icebreaker passed sea trials.

Currently, the Baltic Shipyard continues to work on icebreakers the Chukotka and the Leningrad, as well as on the Vladimir Vorobyov multi-functional nuclear technological maintenance vessel. The laying of the seventh universal nuclear icebreaker of Project 22220 - the Stalingrad - is scheduled for November 19, 2025.

Project 22220 icebreakers are designed to lead caravans of ships in the Arctic, from the Yenisei River and the Gulf of Ob, to tow vessels and other floating structures in ice and clear water, and to solve other tasks. The capacity is 60 MW.