Spring Thaw is Here, but Baltic Icebreaking Continues
Conditions could become more challenging before they get easier.
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When I last wrote about Baltic Sea icebreaking, we had not yet reached peak ice coverage:
Today, the ice is finally gone from my driveway, and it is probably safe to take the winter tires off the car. The Baltic Sea is well passed peak ice.
The peak ice coverage, reached on February 20th, was 181,000 km². That makes the 2025-2026 season “average” for ice coverage1:
Yet the icebreaking season is far from over:
As the ice melts, the prevailing winds tend to push it to the east and northeast, forming ridges and areas of heavy compression along the eastern Gulf of Finland and along Finland’s coast in the Bay of Bothnia. These conditions result in some of the toughest icebreaking work— over the past week or so, icebreaking operations in some Finnish ports were suspended twice because of this.
Since my last update, Russia brought additional icebreakers to assist in the Gulf of Finland, including Sibir, a project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker. Sibir has since left the Baltic Sea, yet Russian icebreaking operations continue in harsh conditions.
With more open water and an easing of restrictions elsewhere, some icebreakers have been able to return to port. Sister ships Varma (Latvia) and Tarmo (Estonia) have finished their season, as has Finland’s Sisu.
Sweden’s Buoy and Lighthouse support vessels Scandica and Baltica have returned to fairway work from Vänern and the Southern Sea of Bothnia. Ale has completed her tasking in Lake Vänern.
Icebreaking operations have also concluded in Germany.
Here is a quick wrap-up of some interesting stories from the past month of Baltic icebreaking operations:
Finland:
The big news here was a fake story that went viral on social media.
As conditions worsened in the Gulf of Finland, some vessels heading to Russia were slowed or stopped by the heavy ice. The prevailing winds and seas then pushed some of these vessels into Finnish territorial waters.
Finland allowed Russian icebreakers to assist these vessels bound for Russia. Some on social media seized onto the related press release from the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and incorrectly reported that the Finns needed to call on Russia to assist them in icebreaking. This was not the case at all! I wrote in depth about it at the time:
No, Russian Icebreakers are Not Assisting Finnish Vessels
It's ships coming to and from Russia, not Finland, that require extra assistance during this exceptional ice season.
Icebreaking services are generally paid for (at least in part) by port fees paid by ships using that port. For this reason, icebreaking services are tied to the port of entry/departure. That is one of the reasons that Ilja Iljin, Deputy Commander of the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District, told the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti “We have no interest in assisting ships sailing to Russia.”
Russia:
Transits in and out of Russian ports had been greatly impacted by the ice coverage in the Gulf of Finland. The icebreaker Krasin, which had been designated “in reserve” for Baltic Sea use, moved instead to a floating drydock. You can see a video of its movement on a Russian social media site:
Escort of the icebreaker “Krasin“ (1976) to the Kanonersky Shipyard (KSZ) in St. Petersburg, where the floating dock is located. Three tugboats took part in it - SESTRORETSK, PAVLOVSK, EVGENY KOCHESHKOV and the icebreaker Semyon Dezhnev.
Ice conditions were greatly restricting operations in and out of St. Petersburg. From the Russian news site www1.ru reported (machine translation from Russian via Microsoft):
From February 16, in the Big Port of St. Petersburg, vessels without ice reinforcement can only sail in individual pilotage. From February 19, with an ice thickness exceeding 30 centimeters, such vessels will not be allowed to sail at all. And ice-class vessels Ice1 and Ice2 (operating with ice thickness from 0.4 to 0.55 m) will need an icebreaker.
Similar restrictions have also been introduced in Ust-Luga. In conditions of an acute shortage of icebreakers, the escort of one vessel can take up to 12 hours.
An additional problem is the impossibility of performing mandatory diving inspections of vessels, since divers cannot work in solid compressed ice near Gogland Island. In freeze-up conditions, the inspection procedure in the Baltic takes more than 11 hours2.
Because of this, Russia transferred two additional icebreakers, including the nuclear-powered Sibir, to the Baltic Sea. As Malte Humpert reported for gCaptain:
Russia has dispatched two powerful icebreakers, including a nuclear-powered vessel, from Arctic waters to the Baltic Sea to help keep shipping lanes open as one of the harshest ice seasons in more than a decade disrupts maritime traffic across northern Europe.
Russia’s Transport Ministry said on Feb. 10 that nuclear icebreaker Sibir and conventional diesel-powered Murmansk would reach the Baltic by the end of February to reinforce four icebreakers already working near Russian ports3.
Sibir wrapped up her Baltic Sea operations and headed back to Arctic waters on March 18th, according to a post by Railotech (formerly Aker Arctic4) over on X.
Germany:
In my February article, I noted that the German Multi-Purpose Vessel Neuwerk repositioned to the Baltic from the North Sea to replace the smaller Arkona. Neuwerk, along with a tug, was able to restore the floating LNG facility off of Mukran to operation. Neuwerk then suffered some sort of mechanical breakdown and had to return to port for repairs.
According to a Feb 16 article by Malte Humpert at gCaptain, ice had severely disrupted the flow of imported gas to Germany:
With shipping halted, gas storage at Mukran fell to record lows, and the facility reportedly stopped feeding gas into the national transmission system in early February. Mukran has been a key import hub since Germany expanded LNG infrastructure after the loss of Russian pipeline gas. It is Europe’s largest floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) terminal by throughput, receiving roughly 12.9 TWh of gas equivalent in the past three months. January alone saw about 4.4 TWh, though February volumes are expected to be sharply lower because of the ice disruption.
Icebreaking operations concluded in Germany in late February.
Estonia:
On March 3, the Estonian icebreaker Tarmo and her Latvian sister ship Varma met in the Gulf of Riga:
According to the Estonian press, the last time these two Helsinki-built ships had met at sea was thirty years ago in the Gulf of Finland.
Tarmo’s icebreaking season ended on March 17th. Botnica and EVA-316 continue to operate.
Thoughts and Comments
This icebreaking season clearly demonstrates that total ice coverage, when used by itself, is not a good metric for determining icebreaking demand.
Despite this being an ‘average’ season for ice coverage, all available icebreakers ended up in operation, some for the first time in nearly a decade. Russia brought in additional icebreakers, and a German LNG facility was severely affected by ice.
Just a few years ago, many were arguing that Baltic Sea nations did not need to be so concerned with replacing their aging icebreakers, as the region would only rarely need to call on all of them. After this season, I expect that many nations will take a more serious look at their future plans.
I have more articles planned for the near future; I just need to find the time to write them! That is one consequence of going back to work full time. I’ll just have to write more efficiently, meaning that my audience might have to live with a few more typos and errors.
Thank you for reading. Be sure to like, subscribe, and share.
All the Best,
PGR
< 115,000 km²: mild season
115,000 km² ≥ average season > 230,000 km²
230,000 km² ≥ severe season > 345,000 km ²
≥ 345,000 km²: extremely severe season
These inspections were introduced in 2025 following a series of unexplained explosions affecting Russian vessels thought to be the result of sabotage. See here for more information: Russia to Launch Vessel Inspections at Baltic Ports After Series of Explosions
It’s not clear where the number four comes from, as there were eleven Russian icebreakers operating in the Baltic Sea at that point. Perhaps at the time of the announcement four icebreakers were assigned to a specific region that required additional assistance.
Aker Arctic changed its name to Railo Technology effective March 4, 2026. According to the new website (railotech.fi):
In 2025, we further strengthened our project execution capabilities through the acquisition of Bluetech Finland. At the same time, Aker Solutions, one of our founding companies, divested its ownership stake. In March 2026, we completed the next step in our evolution by becoming Railo Technology.
In Finnish, railo refers to an ice lead – a narrow split in the ice. We believe this is a fitting name for a company whose expertise lies in making the impossible navigable, while remaining firmly rooted in the Finnish icebreaking heritage. We know ice and how to work with it to open new frontiers.
If the US is breaking down and finally getting icebreakers, the Europeans will certainly need them!