site.btaRSV 421 Welcomes Final Group of Participants in 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition

The Bulgarian research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) on Thursday welcomed the final group of participants in the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition. The group includes dermatologist Prof. Razvigor Darlenski, Deputy Director of the National Centre for Polar Studies at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and logistics coordinator of the National Polar Research Programme Dragomir Mateev, as well as icon painter Ganka Pavlova.

Earlier in the day, the crew of RSV 421 saw off members of the penultimate group of this year’s expedition – the head of the Bulgarian Antarctic expeditions Prof. Christo Pimpirev, Flotilla Admiral Boyan Mednikarov, Prof. Miroslav Tsvetkov of the Naval Academy, biotechnologist Kiril Kandilarov, journalist Zhivko Konstantinov, camerawoman Anna Andreeva and writer Vasil Popov.

Greek scientists Dionysia Rigatou and Eleni Kytinou carried out their second scientific dive from the St. Kliment Ohridski Bulgarian Antarctic base. They are the first researchers to conduct dives as part of a Bulgarian Antarctic expedition.

Geophysicist Kiril Velkovski and physicist Oleg Vasilev performed bathymetric measurements of the seabed and mapped the coastline of Livingston Island.

Other stages of scientific research projects at the base were also completed.

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7, 2025. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata on December 13.

BTA has had a national press club on board the ship since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024. These are added to the news agency’s other 41 national press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and in nations with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile National Book Press Club). BTA's Director General Kiril Valchev announced ahead of the fourth voyage to Antarctica on November 7, 2025 that the national news agency would send a special correspondent in January-February 2026.

He said the press clubs exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. 

The news items of BTA's special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media, with attribution to BTA. Valchev recalled that thanks to its correspondents, the news agency appears among the top results on Google when searching for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.