The keel has been laid for Russia’s Stalingrad icebreaker at the Baltic Shipyard in St Petersburg. Stalingrad will be the sixth serial-production (seventh) Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker. It is scheduled to be put into operation in 2030.
The lead Project 22220 nuclear icebreaker Arktika was launched from the Baltic Shipyard in June 2016. The first serial icebreaker, Siberia, was launched as part of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Atomflot (part of Rosatom) in January 2022. Ural followed in November 2022 and Yakutia in March 2025. Two more are under construction at the Baltic Shipyard – Chukotka, due for delivery in 2026, and Leningrad. Also under construction is a multifunctional nuclear technological service vessel of Project 22770, Vladimir Vorobyov. Following the keel-laying of Stalingrad, a decision to begin construction of two more Project 22220 serial icebreakers will be made in 2026.
Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the keel-laying ceremony via video-conference. The Minister of Industry & Trade, Anton Alikhanov and the Governor of the Volgograd Region, Andrei Bocharov, also participated by video link. The ceremony at the Baltic shipyard was attended by the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District, Igor Rudenya; Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev; the Director General of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC – owner of the Baltic shipyard), Andrey Puchkov; and a 103-year-old WWII veteran and survivor of the Battle of Stalingrad, Pavel Vinokurov; and others.
In his address, President Putin stated: “The tasks before us are – without exaggeration – historical. It is important to consistently strengthen Russia’s position in the Arctic, fully realise the logistics potential of our country, and ensure the development of a promising trans-Arctic transport corridor from St Petersburg to Vladivostok.”
He added: “Today Russia is actively and consistently developing its icebreaker fleet and replenishing it with modern equipment. This is undoubtedly a huge merit of our wonderful shipbuilders, nuclear scientists, engineers, designers, workers and specialists of various professions.… It is thanks to you that Russia today is the only country in the world capable of mass production, the construction of powerful, reliable nuclear icebreakers, and, fundamentally, using its own, domestic technologies.”
USC Director Puchkov noted: “Today … we are building the largest series of seven icebreakers in history. Over the past two years alone, we launched a nuclear-powered icebreaker Chukotka and laid down icebreaker Leningrad. And in just the last five years, USC has delivered four nuclear-powered ships to the customer. We have begun systematic work and have significantly reduced the construction period for nuclear icebreakers from seven to five years. We have achieved this pace, among other things, thanks to the introduction of an advanced production system and the transition to large-block construction technologies – and of course, the most important thing, entering serial production. Today [our staff] demonstrate a significant increase in labour productivity and effectively use unique domestic technologies.”
Alexander Konovalov, General Director of the USC Baltic Shipyard said: “Today we laid down more than just a ship. We have laid down a symbol connecting times, a memory of the great past and faith in our future. By calling this mighty icebreaker Stalingrad, we salute the resilience and courage of our ancestors …. This icebreaker will become another reliable link in ensuring Russia’s leadership in the Arctic Ocean.”
Likhachev noted that, in the year marking the 80th anniversary of the WWII Victory and the Russian nuclear industry, nuclear scientists are especially acutely aware of the historical connections. He added that the first Soviet atomic bomb had ended the monopoly on nuclear weapons, ensuring peace for decades. “Today our nuclear energy is a tool of creation. A nuclear icebreaker –is a peaceful atom in the service of people and the state,” he said.
A capsule with the soil from Mamayev Kurgan was given to Alexey Likhachev by veteran Pavel Vinokurov, who noted: “May this powerful icebreaker, bearing the name of our greatest battle, pave the way in the ice as steadfastly and courageously as our soldiers walked towards Victory. Stay the course! And remember Russia is behind you.” Mamayev Kurgan is a hill overlooking the city of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) where a memorial complex commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad (July 1942 to February 1943) was established including 1967 a statue, named The Motherland Calls, which is the world’s largest free-standing sculpture.
Igor Rudena, Alexey Likhachev, Pavel Vinokurov, and Daniil Kononov, a member of Rosatom’s Arctic expedition Icebreaker Znanie (icebreaker of knowledge), were given the honour of installing a plaque on the first section of icebreaker Stalingrad.
The task of the icebreakers is to ensure year-round navigation along the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor and Northern Sea Route (NSR). In 2024, a record was set for freight traffic through the NSR of 37.9m tonnes up from 36.25m tonnes in 2023. Transit traffic increased to 3.09m tonnes compared with 2.127m tonnes in 2023. Likhachev noted: “We are seeing particularly strong growth in transit container cargo, with 23 international voyages already completed – 50% more than in the whole of 2024.” By 2035 it is planned to increase traffic volumes to 220m tonnes a year. The nuclear icebreaker fleet gives Russia a competitive advantage in the Arctic. It enables environmentally sound and effective navigation in the waters of the NSR.
The key difference between nuclear icebreakers and others is navigational autonomy. The project 22220 icebreakers can operate for up to seven years without refuelling with a service life of 40 years. The vessels are 173 metres long, 34 metres wide and with a height from waterline to mainmast of 57 metres and displacement of 33,540 tonnes. They can break through ice up to three metres thick and have a speed of 22 knots in clear water. The double-draft the design allows them to be used in arctic waters and in the mouths of polar rivers, especially in shallow water sections of the Yenisei and Ob Bay.
The project 22220 icebreakers are powered by two RITM-200 pressurised water reactors with a thermal capacity of 175 MW, which converts to 30 MWe at the propellers – 60 MW in total. This compares with 25 MW for the world’s most powerful diesel-electric icebreaker, Viktor Chernomyrdin. The RITM-200 has an integral layout making it lighter, more compact and 25 MW more powerful than previous reactors used on nuclear-powered icebreakers. The RITM-200, designed by OKBM Afrikantov is manufactured by Rosatom’s ZiO Podolsk engineering plant.
The icebreakers are equipped with a variable electric propulsion system current with asynchronous propulsion electric motors developed by a branch of the Central Research Institute Krylov State Scientific Centre. This is the first domestic development to provide a package solution for controlling an icebreaker in any mode.
However, design changes continue. The fifth and sixth serial nuclear icebreakers of Project 22220 (Leningrad and Stalingrad) should be built in four and a half years, according to Andrei Buzinov, First Deputy General Director of USC. During recent parliamentary hearings in the Federation Council, he noted that it took seven years to build the lead vessel, while the last completed icebreaker, Yakutia, took a little more than five years to build. «We are working to reduce construction cycles. Serial orders provide an opportunity to reduce costs and reduce deadlines. Now the task is to reach a five-year period, and the next icebreakers should be built in four and a half years. The Baltic Plant has such targets,” he said.
However, these icebreakers cannot be considered completely identical. Since the design of ships is ongoing and various changes are now being made to the project. For example, Yakutia in its final form received about 14,000 changes to design documentation. «Equipment and suppliers are changing, the requirements of the Register and Rostechnadzor is becoming stricter, which is an absolutely normal work of the regulator, to which we must respond.”
As well as the project 22220 nuclear icebreakers at the Baltic Shipyard, the world’s most powerful icebreaker, Rossiya, is under construction at the Far Eastern Zvezda shipyard in Bolshoy Kamen (Primorsky Krai) as lead nuclear icebreaker of the Lidar Project 10510. This new generation of icebreakers will be twice as powerful and one and a half times wider, according to Likhachev. Rossiya, which was laid down in July 2020, will have two new generation RITM-400 reactors. These have already been manufactured.
