site.btaBulgarian Naval Research Ship Crosses Antarctic Border during Return Voyage

The naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) crossed the Antarctic border on Wednesday on its way back to Bulgaria.

On Tuesday, the ship left the waters around the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island, starting its return voyage of tens of thousands of kilometres.

The vessel reached the Drake Passage, one of the world's most hazardous places to navigate.

RSV 421 set sail for the icy continent on November 7, 2025, from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna.

BTA has had a national press club on board the vessel since 2022. In February 2024, the national news agency also opened one at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island. The two press clubs exist thanks to the free support of the RSV 421 crew and of the Bulgarian base, which have provided the necessary premises. These are added to BTA's other 41 press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and countries with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile called National Book Press Club).

The reports of BTA’s special correspondents from RSV 421 and from Antarctica are freely accessible in a special thematic section of the news agency’s website, entitled “Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log,” in Bulgarian and English, and may be used freely by all media with attribution to BTA. According to BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, thanks to its special correspondents the agency appears among the first results in a Google search for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.