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Mikhail Somov icebreaker opens new season

The icebreaker will take cargo to 15 polar stations - fuel, food, medicines, research equipment and construction materials

ARKHANGELSK, May 26. /TASS/. The Mikhail Somov icebreaker on Tuesday left Arkhangelsk for the first voyage in 2020. The scientific-research vessel will deliver cargo to polar stations in the White and Barents Seas, the Northern Department on Hydrometeorology and Environment’s Director Roman Yershov told TASS.

"The Mikhail Somov on May 26 began the first, so-called small, voyage: the vessel will go to a few stations on the White and Barents Seas," he said.

The icebreaker will take cargo to 15 polar stations - fuel, food, medicines, research equipment and construction materials.

"We shall bring to the stations many construction materials, including to the Zhizhgin Island in the White Sea, where we plan to build new accommodation for the meteorologists," the Department’s Deputy Director Alexei Barakov told TASS. "Besides, we shall install a solar farm there."

The icebreakers’ crew had been onboard from May 15, observing the quarantine requirements.

"Our personnel, who come from other regions, for example, from Novosibirsk, came to Arkhangelsk even earlier, back on May 6, and remained self-isolated there," he continued.

In 2020, the icebreaker will make three deliveries, not two like it was in the past.

"We shall organize different trips: this one would be an early voyage, not long, about 16 days, so that the icebreaker could make it later on to the Far East, before the Kara Sea gets covered with thick ice," Yershov added. During the following voyages, scientists will have more time for research.

The second voyage is due on June 25. The Mikhail Somov will go to stations in the Kara and Barents Seas, including the northernmost station on the Heiss Island, the Franz Josef Land Archipelago. The third voyage will be to Chukotka. Totally, before November, the icebreaker will bring cargo to more than 60 hard-to-reach meteorology stations and will exchange personnel there.

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