site.btaFourth Group of Participants in Bulgaria’s 34th Antarctic Expedition to Arrive at Livingston Island on Sunday

The fourth and penultimate group of participants in Bulgaria’s 34th Antarctic Expedition is set to arrive on Sunday at the Bulgarian base on Livingston Island.

During the day, the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) is expected to anchor off the Bulgarian Antarctic base St Kliment Ohridski, Radko Muevski, commanding officer of RSV 421, told BTA. This will be followed by the transfer of the group’s members to the base, as well as their official welcome and accommodation.

The group, led by the head of the Bulgarian Antarctic expeditions, Prof. Hristo Pimpirev, includes Flotilla Admiral Boyan Mednikarov, Capt. Prof. Miroslav Tsvetkov, Assoc. Prof. Stoyan Georgiev of the Geological Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Chief Assistant Snezhana Rusinova-Videva of the BAS Institute of Microbiology, Chief Assistant Gergana Georgieva from the Faculty of Physics at St Kliment Ohridski Sofia University, and Prof. Emil Stanev from Germany, as well as Greek researchers Dionysia Rigatou from the University of Athens and Eleni Kytinou from the Institute of Oceanography at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research.

The group also includes BTA special correspondent Simona-Alex Mihaleva, journalist Jivko Konstantinov, journalist Maria Cherneva, camera operator Anna Andreeva, biotechnician Kiril Kandilarov, and writer Vasil Popov. The group departed from Sofia on January 24.

“Today, a visit by representatives of the Turkish Antarctic programme to the Bulgarian ship and the Bulgarian base is also expected. A joint visit by Bulgarian and Turkish scientists to a glacier near the Bulgarian base is planned, along with the collection of samples,” Bulgarian base commander Kamen Nedkov told BTA.

Later in the day, the vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii also plans to carry out transport operations, weather permitting.

Scientists from the St Kliment Ohridski base are also planning a friendly visit to the Spanish Antarctic base Juan Carlos I, which is located near the Bulgarian facility.

Meanwhile, routine tasks for the Bulgarian polar team include maintenance work on both the ship and the base, as well as construction and installation activities related to the furniture in the new laboratory and the meteorological laboratory being built in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.

RSV 421 departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in the city of Mar del Plata on December 13, 2025. BTA has had a national press club on board since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024.

The news pieces of the BTA 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 reference to BTA.