A new nuclear-powered icebreaker has been launched from a shipyard in St. Petersburg. ‘The Yakutia’ is the fourth ship of the Arktika series, which Russia is building to boost navigation along its Northern Sea Route.
The ship was launched at the Baltic Shipyard on Tuesday in a ceremony, which also included the raising of the national flag on ‘the Ural,’ the third icebreaker of the same design.
‘The Ural’ was launched in 2019 and is scheduled to complete sea trials and be handed over this month to operator Atomflot, the state-owned firm responsible for Russia’s entire civilian nuclear fleet. ‘The Yakutia’ is expected to join it in 2024.
‘The Arktika,’ the first of the class, was commissioned in 2020, and is the world’s largest nuclear-propelled icebreaker. A total of five such ships have been commissioned, with plans for two more in the pipeline.