Quickly accumulating sea ice along the Northern Sea Route is creating a potentially critical situation along Russia’s east Arctic coast. For several weeks, a number of ships have been trapped in thick sea ice. Several ships have also been waiting to sail into the area.

Over the past years, ice conditions in late October and early November have allowed extensive shipping along the vast Russian Arctic coast. This year, however, large parts of the remote Arctic waters were already covered by sea ice by late October.

A new study sheds light on some of the risks associated with Arctic shipping finding that vessels with lower ice-classes are up to 20 times more likely to become stuck in sea ice along Russia’s Northern Sea Route than vessels with higher levels of protection.

Following a nuclear-powered icebreaker, a Russian tanker has sailed through the frigid Northern Sea Route for the first time ever in February. “Won’t somebody think of the poor ice?”, climate-conscious commenters shouted.

One of three propulsion units on the tanker “Nikolay Yevgenov” was damaged on January 16 as the vessel approached the Bering Strait. After having sailed with a speed of about 9 knots from Sabetta, the tanker suddenly slowed to 3 knots.