In early May the Kapitan Zarubin icebreaker of the North-West Basin Branch started to open ice on Lake Ladoga in order to enable the start of summer navigation on the inner water ways of the Volga-Baltice transport system. The icebreaker will work at Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega till 14 May, and then will return to its permanent base in the Big Port of Saint-Petersburg.

On the way towards Lake Onega the icebreaker also cleared the estuaries of small rivers, the ice combustions at which are main reasons for the spring high water in this area.

Such measures are taken every year because of the difficult ice conditions at Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega in that season.

Video featuring the work of icebreaker