Despite the debt, deep economic crisis, and social upheavals that Ukraine is currently facing, the state is once again financing a large-scale scientific mission. The National Antarctic Science Center announced a competition for participation in the 31st Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition. The participants will go to the station “Akademik Vernadskyi”, which is located in the West Antarctic. Such research requires serious financial investments from the state budget. Investing in Antarctic science under such conditions begins to look not like an investment in the future, but like an expense that does not take into account the primary needs of society. While one part of the country is fighting for the country and survival, the other is spending resources on prestigious but dubious priority projects, which clearly demonstrates a deep imbalance in the state’s approach to the distribution of funding.
Ukraine is preparing a new expedition to Antarctica: recruitment of winterers has started
The National Antarctic Scientific Center of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine has opened a competition for participation in the 31st Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition. In 2026-2027, a team of twelve participants will go on a year-long mission to the Akademik Vernadskyi station, located on Galindez Island in the West Antarctic. Work in a remote environment with extreme conditions, complete isolation and limited resources awaits. Seven scientists and five station maintenance specialists are planned to be included in the expedition. Among the technical staff, a diesel electrician, a mechanic, a doctor, a cook and a communication system administrator are needed. The scientific block covers research in the fields of geophysics, geology, atmospheric physics, biology, ecology and the study of geospace.
Applicants must be physically healthy, psychologically stable and ready to work in confined spaces. At the same time, the ability to get along with the team and communicate without conflicts is a mandatory component. Knowledge of English or Spanish is also welcome. A master’s degree is mandatory for scientific positions. Field research experience and publications are an advantage. Maintenance specialists must have appropriate education and practical experience in their specialty. Recruitment is already open, so those willing to try themselves in polar conditions can start preparing documents and go through the selection process.
Ukrainian Antarctic history continues: the rotation of winterers and the ice route “Noosphere”
At the beginning of April, the team of the 29th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition returned home. After a year of work at the “Akademik Vernadskyi” station, the polar explorers set off on the return journey, which took almost two weeks. They were replaced by a new shift of the 30th expedition, which arrived in Antarctica on March 8 under the leadership of an experienced meteorologist and polar explorer Oleksandr Poludny. The Akademik Vernadsky station, where Ukrainian researchers work, is located on Galindez Island, seven kilometers from the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. This is the only Antarctic base of Ukraine that works continuously and performs the functions of a scientific, meteorological and geophysical observatory. Its main task is to conduct scientific research, which determines the mission of the entire National Antarctic Science Center.
The history of the station began long before Ukrainian participation. It was built by the British in 1947 and named “Faraday”. In 1996, Great Britain handed it over to Ukraine, after which it received the new name “Academician Vernadskyi”, in honor of the outstanding Ukrainian scientist Volodymyr Vernadskyi. It was he who became the first president of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and a symbol of scientific sovereignty, including Antarctic sovereignty.
On the anniversary of the Ukrainian presence on the sixth continent, in January 2021, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the station. And in August of the same year, the Noosphere icebreaker was purchased for the logistical needs of the expeditions. In 1996, this same ship first brought Ukrainian scientists to the station, which was then still British. As you can see, the Antarctic history of Ukraine continues: it is complex, costly, harsh, but persistent and stubborn, just like the country that creates it.
Salmon, wine and octopuses during the war: how much Antarctic science really costs Ukraine
Antarctic expeditions certainly have scientific value. Ukrainian polar explorers observe climate changes, investigate geophysical processes, and conduct biological experiments. All this is, of course, difficult and responsible work in conditions of strict isolation, low temperatures and lack of comfort. However, it is worth remembering exactly how much taxpayers spend each year to support this activity.
Last year, the journalists of IA “FAKT” already wrote on the cost of logistical support for Antarctic missions. The amount that appeared in public procurement on the Prozorro platform, made up 11 million 606 thousand 125 US dollars without VAT (64 million 301 thousand 494 hryvnias). These funds were used for the purchase of fuel, products, technical equipment, as well as logistics for the Akademik Vernadskyi station and the research vessel “Noosphere”.
Then the list of purchases caused a wave of indignation in society. Among the products ordered were not only basic products, but also 118 kg of fillet and 140 kg of salmon steak, 28 kg of octopus, 5040 eggs, 4 kilograms of caviar, chocolate, candies, as well as 168 bottles of red and 112 bottles of white wine. At the same time, the purchase concerned only one year of provision.
The head of the NASC, Yevgeny Dykiy, a former military man and an active public figure, explained this expense in an emotional way, noting that it is a “once a year” purchase, and the volumes amount to no more than “two glasses of wine per week” and “a piece of chocolate per day.” In response to the wave of criticism, he accused society of tolerating dodgers and emphasized that the hate was caused by his tough stance on mobilization.
At the same time, in 2022, the Antarctic mission cost the state budget one and a half million dollars. Already in 2023, the amount exceeded 11.7 million. Separately, more than 50 thousand hryvnias were spent on the purchase of national flags for the station and the ship. Such a sequence of expenses looks particularly contrasting against the background of the needs of the wounded, displaced persons and the general deficit in the social sphere. While thousands of Ukrainian families count every hryvnia, save for bread and medicine, and children in evacuation do not always have access to basic products, the state puts Antarctic “delicacies” in the budget. Chocolate, caviar, octopus, salmon steaks and several hundred bottles of wine look more like the fantasy of a restaurant menu than part of a government purchase for a scientific expedition.
In conditions where the country is losing people, homes and sources of income every day, financing such a “comfortable survival” looks not only superfluous, but frankly cynical. Explanations about “10 grams of chocolate a day” or “two glasses of wine a week” do not erase the reality in which the majority of Ukrainians find themselves. Because even these 10 grams are a luxury when the refrigerator is empty. Of course, no one denies the importance of science for the development of the state. But in the conditions of war, it is important to understand the limits of what is permissible. Caviar and wine while the country survives cannot be justified by any formula of scientific progress.
Financial Breakdown: What’s Behind the Millions
About 11.6 million US dollars – this much, according to the official data of the tender for Prozorro, the state plans to spend on ensuring the Antarctic expedition in 2026-2027. In hryvnia equivalent, it is more than 64 million. The price sounds daunting, but it becomes even more tangible if you look at it through the prism of specific needs within the country.
There are 12 people in the expedition. If you divide this amount by this number, you get almost 967,000 dollars per winterer, or more than 5.3 million hryvnias. With these funds, the state provides their accommodation, food, transportation, fuel, technical resources and logistics. This does not include VAT, additional costs for the Noosphere icebreaker or other project-related costs.
For comparison: for 5 million hryvnias, you can restore a village dispensary, buy equipment for a rehabilitation center, or fully finance one year of operation of a small school for 100 students. For the same amount, you can buy about 4,000 first-aid kits for the military, finance the treatment of dozens of children with cancer, or provide monthly assistance of 5,000 hryvnias for 1,000 internally displaced persons during the year.
And now on a larger scale: the entire amount of $11.6 million, at the current exchange rate, would build or renovate at least 5 regional hospitals or rehabilitation centers, purchase 200,000 sets of winter clothing for children in the frontline regions, finance an annual school lunch program for several regions, and provide annual maintenance of more than 100 full-service IDP shelters.
Of course, ensuring the comfort and physical endurance of the expedition participants is also a necessity, given the harsh conditions of Antarctica. But the level of expenses and the volume of orders look dissonant against the background of chronic underfunding of basic spheres of life in Ukraine itself. Especially now, when every hryvnia should be invested with maximum benefit for people who live under shelling, lose their homes or try to survive after being wounded.
Against the background of chronically underfunded medical facilities, cuts in educational programs and minimization of social support costs, almost $12 million a year to maintain the expedition looks like a political decision made in isolation from the reality of most citizens. For example, according to the open data of the Ministry of Finance, in 2023, the amount of expenditures on the state program for providing schools with computer equipment was half as much as the annual Antarctic procurement. At the same time, in some regions, due to a lack of funds, projects to build shelters in schools were suspended and purchases of rehabilitation equipment for the wounded were delayed.
This contrast raises questions not only about cost effectiveness, but also about the principles by which priorities are currently set. Antarctic procurement goes through Prozorro as a normal tender procedure, but there is no public debate or explanation from the government as to why this particular area remains untouched at a time of massive cuts in other sectors. Instead of strategic transparency, we have silence or excuses in the style: “that’s how it’s always been”.
Financing of such programs can be justified only in conditions of a stable budget and a balanced economy. But in reality, where there is a war, the external debt is increasing every month, and domestic access to basic services is decreasing, the lack of redistribution looks like political blindness. In the frontline cities, mothers feed their children with cheap vermicelli because there is nothing else. Tens of thousands of displaced people survive in dormitories and modular towns without stable access to medical care or quality food, pensioners count pennies in order to have enough for medicine and food, people were left homeless as a result of shelling, but there is no money for all this in the state budget. This demonstrates not only the imbalance in funding, but also the reluctance of officials to adjust approaches to resource management when the situation calls for it.
Against this background, the government’s concern for the comfort of winterers with bottles of wine and salmon steaks does not look like a concern for science, but a choice in favor of status, even if it is expensive and not always justified. And it is not about envy or the desire to “equalize” someone, but the ethical line that officials cross when they continue to finance “important” projects, neglecting the basic needs of Ukrainians.
It is quite clear that Ukraine’s exploration of Antarctica looks like a beautiful, ambitious and perhaps even prestigious idea. However, when the country exists on the verge of exhaustion, the financing of such projects ceases to be a matter of science. Such an approach can be safely perceived as a symptom of a system where the comfort of certain elected officials continues to be paid for due to a lack of funds for the desperately needed needs of Ukrainians. And the real cold begins, as it turns out, not in Antarctica, but in the attitude of officials to their own society.
