site.btaFinal Group of 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition Arrives on Livingston Island

The final group of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition is expected to arrive on February 13, on Livingston Island. 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.

The group will arrive aboard the Bulgarian research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421). On its way, the ship will pick up eight people from Deception Island for transfer to the Spanish base Juan Carlos I. It will also drop off two people at the Spanish base Gabriel de Castilla.

At the Bulgarian Antarctic base St Kliment Ohridski, further stages of various scientific projects are expected to be carried out, weather permitting. Seismologist Gergana Georgieva continues monitoring seismological stations in the area of the base. Microbiologist Snezhana Vasileva-Rusinova is planning to collect new samples in the vicinity of the base.

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”.