This Wednesday, the environmental platoon from the Eastern Military District will head to Wrangel Island in the Arctic for an environmental cleanup of Rogers Bay and Somnitelnaya Bay, the district press service reports.

The report states that on Wednesday, the platoon will set out for the airfield in Anadyr (Chukotka Autonomous Area). They will take an MI-26 helicopter ride to the island by the end of the week.

"Over 40 service members will go to Wrangel Island; over 10 units of equipment and some 20 units of special technological gear will be used for the cleanup," the message states. "It will take place on the territory adjacent to Rogers Bay and Somnitelnaya Bay (the village of Ushakovsky and Zvyozdny airfield)."

Since staying in tents is dangerous due to the numerous polar bears living on the island, the environmentalists will set up a permanent camp in the Somnitelnaya Bay area.

This season, the environmental platoon will collect some 150 metric tons of scrap metal in the form of empty barrels for external organizations to ship to the mainland, the press service reports. The platoon will also reclaim about two hectares of land free from the scrap metal.

Wrangel Island, which is located in the Arctic Ocean between the East Siberian and the Chukchi seas, is a part of the like-named nature reserve and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since October 2014, Eastern Military District units have been deployed on Wrangel Island to guard the airspace. Until the 1990s, military units were also stationed on the island.