On July 7, 2018 the Moskva diesel-electric icebreaker of the North-Western Basin Branch returned to the home port – the seaport of Big Port St Petersburg. The icebreaker has been working in the water area of the seaport of Sabetta for seven months.

During the winter navigation, the Moskva icebreaker under the authority of captain Ruslan Mikhailov provided 49 vessel calls of large-capacity gas tankers and 127 vessel calls of support transport craft.

The 2017-2018 navigation in the seaport of Sabetta lasted one month longer than the expeditions of the past years. This is related to the natural and climatic conditions of the seaport of Sabetta where the air temperature decreased to minus 30 degrees Celsius and even lower. The thickness of ice reefing on the edges of approach channels in the seaport reached six meters.

Director of the North-Western Basin Branch Sergei Pylin congratulated crewmembers of the Moskva icebreaker on the successful implementation of all tasks and the safe return home.

After planned repairs and an inspection by the Russian Registry of Shipping the Moskva icebreaker will be ready for the next navigation in the Arctic region.

For reference

The Moskva LK-16 icebreaker of Project 21900 was built at OJSC “Baltic Shipyard” in 2008.

The Moskva icebreaker is the prototype in the series. This is a two-mast vessel with two all-round swinging propellers with the total capacity of 16 megawatts.