In Antarctica, the flag of the Azov Brigade was raised over the Ukrainian Akademik Vernadsky station to honor its military and fulfill the dream of Mariupol defender Valeria “Nava” Subbotina.
According to Ukrinform, the National Antarctic Research Center reported this on Facebook and posted a video.
In May 2022, while on the Azovstal ship surrounded by the enemy, Valeria wrote to the polar explorers that she would like to go to Antarctica for the winter, and this would be her additional motivation to survive. She was later captured, but during the most difficult days she thought about the icy continent.
In the spring of 2023, Nava returned to Ukraine, and in December 2024, part of her dream came true.
The soldier and her sister-in-law, who also went through the horrors of Russian captivity, Maria “Gerda” Czech, traveled to the Antarctic on a cruise ship thanks to the UNITED24 platform, its ambassador Scott Kelly, and the National Antarctic Science Center.
The final point of this trip was supposed to be a visit to the Akademik Vernadsky station. But when the liner was a few dozen kilometers from the Ukrainian scientific base, bad weather and a strong storm began. The captain was forced to turn the ship around and head back.
“That day, we at the center, the polar explorers at the station, and Nava and Gerda were very upset. But we promised that we would make every effort to get them to Vernadsky in the future. And in the near future we will fulfill one of the main missions of their trip: we will raise the Azov flag over the station,” said Yevhen Dykyi, Director of the National Science Center.
The flag reached Antarctica with a seasonal Ukrainian expedition. It was hoisted on the flagpole by a “fighting penguin” Yuriy Lyshenko, a polar explorer who fought at the front, was seriously wounded and lost his leg. Now he has recovered and also realized his dream: he returned to Vernadsky on a prosthetic leg.
“Although we were upset that we didn’t get to the station, I see this as optimistic: it means that this journey is still ahead. And while we were back on duty, our flag still reached the Vernadsky and flew over it. This is another way to remind the world about the war in Ukraine and our invincibility,” Nava said.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, at the invitation of the UNITED24 platform and its ambassador, American astronaut Scott Kelly, Ukrainian servicewomen Valeria “Nava” Subotina and Maria “Gerda” Chekh went on a trip to Antarctica.
Source: Flag of Azov Brigade was hoisted over Ukrainian Akademik Vernadsky station
