At the Vernadsky research base in Antarctica, a crew of 12 Ukrainians watch from thousands of miles away as their country is battered by Russian attacks.
Ukraine’s largest TV broadcasters have merged their coverage into a single rolling-news channel which plays on a screen in the base’s common room. Occasionally snow blocks the satellite dish that the station relies on for its internet connection, but most of the time the researchers are able to follow news of the invasion through official sources and messaging apps.
Although he is nearly 10,000 miles from home, Anton also feels connected to his family and friends back in Kharkiv. “We communicate via the internet. They are safe. They stay in shelters, sometimes they are at home,” he says.
It’s still not clear when the scientists and support staff at Verdansky station will be able to return to Ukraine. Some researchers who were due to go on upcoming expeditions are trapped in Ukrainian cities under Russian bombardment, says a press officer at Ukraine’s National Antarctic Scientific Center: “Some of the team is locked in Kyiv and some of the team is locked in Kharkiv.”
When they do make it home, the members of the twenty-sixth Ukrainian expedition will be returning to a country forever altered by the Russian invasion. From thousands of miles away they watch and hope. “I want to believe that I will return to a free Ukraine,'' says Khytryi.