On April 8, the Yamal nuclear powered icebreaker left Murmansk on an expedition for oil company Rosneft, with support from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Hibiny.com reports. The Yamal will sail from the Barents Sea to the East Siberian Sea along most of the Russian Arctic coast.

"This is a new integrated expedition that was commissioned by Rosneft to study the physical, mechanical, morphological and metric properties of ice and oceanographic and hydro-meteorological conditions that are part of the formation of such properties," said expedition head Yevgeny Makarov, who is aboard the Yamal.

Currently, scientists from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute are conducting research in the southwestern part of the Kara Sea, and in the near future the icebreaker will be assigned to escort other ships.