On Thursday, August 19, Great Britain sold the icebreaker James Clark Ross to the Ukrainian antarctic station Academician Vernadsky. After the registration of all documents, the vessel under the Ukrainian flag will sail from Denmark to Ukraine. The icebreaker will arrive in Odessa in early autumn this year. This is reported by the press service of the British Embassy in Ukraine.
On July 7, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to allocate funds (about $5 mln) to purchase a ship icebreaker for Ukrainian Antarctic expeditions.
For the last 20 years, Ukraine did not have its own icebreaker, which significantly limited the work of researchers. With this vessel, the state will be able to conduct large-scale research in the Southern Ocean and may eventually begin research in the Arctic.
Icebreaker James Clark Ross built in 1990 can move through ice up to 4 m thick in extreme conditions and works in normal mode in the ice layer up to 1.5 m thick. The vessel is almost 100 m long and has a displacement of 5,732 tons. It specializes in marine biological, oceanographic and geophysical research.
