A 35-year-old Ukrainian has died at Ukraine’s Academician Vernadsky research station in Antarctica, personnel of the station reported on May 9.
Vasyl Omelyanovych was from the town of Malyn in Zhytomyr Oblast. He was the station’s cook. It was his fifth expedition to the Academician Vernadsky station.
The preliminary conclusion is that Omelyanovych died by suicide, according to the station’s management.
“We knew Vasyl as a very calm, reasonable and kind man and a true professional,” Yevhen Dyky, head of the station, said on May 9.
Vasyl Omelyanovych, a member of the crew of the Vernadsky Research Base, Ukraine’s only research station in Antarctica. On May 9, 2020, the station reported that Omelyanovych had died. He is the first crew member to die at the station since Ukraine acquired it in 1996. (Courtesy)
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The crew of the research station is planning to transport Omelyanovych’s body to Ukraine.
This is the first death during Ukraine’s research at the station. Omelyanovych was one of 12 crew members working at the station now.
The Kyiv Post’s video about the Ukrainian researchers setting off to the Vernadsky Station earlier in 2020 featured Vasyl Omelyanovych, who was reported dead on May 9.
Vernadsky Station, which was established in 1953 by Britain as Faraday Station, was purchased by Ukraine in February 1996 for a symbolic sum worth of just 1 pound sterling. Since then, Ukraine has had 24 crew rotations at the station.
It is the only Ukrainian research station in Antarctica.
