MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Nearly two dozen new geographic points in the Arctic Ocean, not shown on marine charts or world maps, have been discovered by Russian navigators during an unprecedented voyage around the world.

Sailing across the Arctic, the crew of the Admiral Vladimirsky research ship, made a number of geographical and scientific discoveries. One of the main achievements of the expedition was the mapping of Yaya, a very small Arctic island, barely one meter above sea level and covering only 500 square meters. Russian pilots discovered it at the beginning of October. With the vessel's crew having confirmed its presence in the Laptev Sea, Yaya was added to the map of the Arctic Ocean.

“Admiral Vladimirsky’s long-distance voyage has become the first round-the-world expedition by a Russian navy ship in modern Russian history,” a navy spokesman, Captain Igor Dygalo, said on Wednesday as Admiral Vladimirsky was completing its circumnavigation.

The vessel will return to her home port of Kronstadt near St Petersburg on January 18.

Admiral Vladimirsky left the port town on August 18. The route of the ship included the Baltic, North and Barents Seas, the waters of the Northern Sea Route, the Bering Sea, and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. The ship passed through the Panama Canal to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and after passing the English Channel, the southern part of the North Sea, the Danish straits, it will finally finish the route in the Baltic Sea.

Since the beginning of the campaign, the crew covered more than 25,000 nautical miles, also calling into the ports of Nicaragua and Cuba.