site.btaBulgarian Naval Research Vessel Getting Ready to Depart from Livingston Island

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) is expected to depart from Livingston Island on Tuesday. On Monday, loading and unloading activities are planned between the ship and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Antarctic base. Personal belongings and working materials will be loaded onto RSV 421 from the base before the ship’s final departure from Antarctica on the long journey to Bulgaria.

In the meantime, if weather conditions permit, stages of scientific projects of the scientists who are located at the base and on the ship will be 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. BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said they exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. These two press clubs 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).

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”.