The Yakutia icebreaker became part of the Russian icebreaking fleet

The third serial nuclear-powered icebreaker Yakutia has joined the Russian icebreaking fleet. This was announced on March 27 by the head of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, at the International Arctic Forum in Murmansk.

"Today, Atomflot has one more icebreaker in its fleet... On April 1-2, Yakutia will move from St. Petersburg and will be operational during the most difficult period of the ice situation in order to support our projects," Likhachev said.

The head of state also noted that the Northern Sea Route (NSR) plays a key supporting role in the development of the Arctic, which will largely determine the success of specific projects and "people's standard of living."

"The Northern Sea Route is a supporting infrastructure that should be linked to land transport routes," Likhachev added.

According to the head of state, a long-term integrated approach to the development of the NSR, which has been going on for decades, is also important.

"It is necessary to plan with the horizons of decades. The Arctic requires a long time to implement a project," Likhachev said.

The head of Rosatom also noted that in the Arctic it would not be possible to simply integrate into the infrastructure and create some kind of project, but it was necessary to "create the entire infrastructure from scratch."

Earlier, on March 26, Secretary of the State Council of the Russian Federation Alexei Dyumin said that the Arctic is a huge resource base, and stressed the importance of mineral development for Russia.