Antarctic expedition returns to Ukraine after yearlong mission

MOSCOW. May 5 (Interfax) - The 27th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition has returned home, as its members arrived in Kiev from Warsaw on Friday, May 5, Ukrainian media reported with reference to the National Antarctic Scientific Center's social media post.

"Their trip from Antarctica to Ukraine has taken nearly a month. On April 7, the team departed the Academician Vernadsky research base for the South African Republic on board the Noosfera research icebreaker. The ship arrived at the Port of Cape Town on April 29, from which [the expedition members] got to Kiev by planes and by land transport," it said.

The expedition has conducted geophysical, meteorological, and biological measurements and research and maintained the base's functioning for the past year.

Along with the yearlong expedition members, participants in a seasonal expedition who worked at the base during the Antarctic winter, including technical specialists who did some emergency upgrades, also returned to Ukraine.

The 28th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition has now started its mission at the Academician Vernadsky base.