Russian Defense Ministry expeditions have discovered 11 islands and six straits in the Arctic seas over the past five years, head of the department, Captain First Class Sergei Travin told TASS.

"Over the past five years, we have made more than 25 long voyages on our oceanographic research vessels and have discovered 11 islands, six straits, nine capes and five bays. All of these have been confirmed and applied to our navigational charts," he said.

These newly discovered geographic features were identified on and around the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos.

Travin noted that in recent years, the hydrographic work carried out by the department has made it possible to include a 52,000 square meter section of the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia's continental shelf and to consolidate the country's legal rights to the continental shelf in the central part of the Barents Sea.