“I and my friend, Doctor of Sciences (Biology) Serhii Utievskyi, who fought at the Luhansk front in an adjacent section to mine in 2014, like to joke that no matter what problems we are facing right now, it was still harder near Luhansk,” Yevhen Dykyi optimistically started our conversation. He is a marine biologist by training, commanded a company of the Aidar Battalion in 2014, while on February 7 this year, he became acting director of the National Antarctic Scientific Center (NASC), which was unexpected even for Dykyi himself.
Let us recall that the NASC is the national operator of Ukraine in Antarctica, where we own the Academician Vernadsky Station, formerly the British Faraday Station, sold for a symbolic one pound in 1996. Dykyi describes the work done there as follows: “As of the 20th century, they worked quite well, but then stopped for some reason.”
Over his first two weeks in office, the head of the NASC has managed to do a lot. For instance, Ukrainian scientists can now take part in the projects of the French Polar Institute, and soon the Academician Vernadsky Station will have permanent access to the Internet (for now, electronic messages can be sent from here once a week). Antarctica will also become open for women again. “Women worked at the Vernadsky Station for two first winters. Then the leadership of the Antarctic center changed, and they began to follow the same logic which guides people who force the Muslim women to wear chadors. They alleged that when women were wintering, men were quarreling over them, and they decided that it would be better to solve the problem not by educating men to do better, but by banning women from the station. However, why no Western station faces such problems?” Dykyi mused.
Some bad traditions are hard to break. As we held our conversation, which took place on February 21, the scientist was still hoping to be able to hold a tender for supplying the station this season through the ProZorro system. The tender was at risk due to strange complaints from one of the participants. The next day, the head of the NASC posted on Facebook that the Antimonopoly Committee delayed deciding whether to accept the complaint as long as possible, and then accepted it. The appeal was scheduled for the latest date available, March 7. The NASC cannot wait so long, because the new shift of polar explorers should get in place by April, until the ice blocks seaways. Therefore, the head of the Antarctic center will have to negotiate with companies that can supply polar explorers. However, he was ready for such a turn of events anyway, and told The Day what he would do in this situation. Also, through our conversation with Dykyi, we learned how Antarctica was like a pulse, outer space and even Crimea, and how Ukraine could develop polar explorations despite limited resources.
“NOBODY EVER ASKED WHAT THE ANTARCTIC STATION’S RETURN ON INVESTMENT WAS”
What were your first steps in office? How much did your mental picture of the state of the center differ from the reality?
“In general, I understood what I was getting into. I think that it is worth it, because the Antarctic center is a national treasure, all its ‘bugs’ which I am now trying to ‘fix’ notwithstanding. This is to a certain extent our ticket to the civilized world. Space and polar exploration, ocean research is what distinguishes members of the ‘golden billion’ from Third World countries. If a country can afford such projects, and not only ones serving its daily needs, then it belongs to that part of civilization where we see Elon Musk.
“Given the terrible decline of Ukrainian science over the last 20 years, the fact that we have kept the Antarctic station and the polar direction of research alive is one of the claws with which we are clinging to the ‘golden billion.’ For me, it is a matter of honor to make sure that we look properly there. This is not so right now.
“The main achievement of my predecessors, and for this they should be honored and praised, is preserving the station despite the war and financial crises. The station has never stopped working even for one day, it is in normal condition, it is regularly repaired. In our conditions, this is a great achievement. It is another matter that since the NASC was not managed by scientists, nobody ever asked what the Antarctic station’s return on investment was.
Photo from the website REPORT.IF.UA
“My center’s budget for this year is 2 million euros, or 72 million hryvnias. For our Western colleagues, it is nothing. For example, the similar French institution has an annual budget of 280 million euros. However, all Ukrainian science got 200 million euros in 2018, that is, we received 1 percent of this amount. We need to show something for this money. All this is measurable. One can calculate the index of citation of scientific works for a country or an institution according to databases, for example, Scopus. We did it. The result left us a little sad. We cannot compete with the US or Britain, as funding amounts are just so much higher there. But according to economic indicators, we should be at the same level with Poland and ahead of, say, the Czech Republic, which came to Antarctica 10 years ago. We have worked there for 22 years, if the Soviet period is excluded. And still, we are about 50th in the world on Antarctic research. There are about 30 countries that have polar stations. That is, we have been overtaken by a number of countries that do not have their own Antarctic stations, but only occasionally visit there, but they do it competently.
“We are now on a par with Turkey. It, of course, is not the least important country in the world, but it entered Antarctica only two years ago.
“If you come to visit me a year later, I will not be able to show you numbers that will be strikingly different. This cannot be corrected in such a short time. But we need to use this year to establish a system in which everything will gradually increase.”
“THERE WILL BE PROPER INTERNET ACCESS IN THE VERNADSKY STATION STARTING WITH THIS SHIFT”
That is, we were essentially mere caretakers at the Academician Vernadsky Station?
“Exactly. The center adequately fulfilled the functions of caretaking and logistics. But at the same time, they forgot what this logistics was for. To a certain extent, it turned into scientific tourism.
“My key complaint against my predecessors is that the center has always been a very closed structure. Those who had a good relationship with the center got to travel to Antarctica, regardless of whether they obtained any results. Those unable to establish a working relationship with the center were just out of luck. I was in the latter category. I was on the blacklist here for a time. I was trying to get to Antarctica through the center for more than ten years. If someone told me earlier that I would get into the director’s office first, and only then to Antarctica, I would have laughed a lot.
“The selection of participants for every polar expedition was quite a random process. No, not just charlatans got in. Some really excellent experts got in along with riff-raff. However, the main criterion was reaching an agreement with the management of the center.
“We will change it fundamentally. In particular, we are changing the composition of the Antarctic Science and Technology Council (STC), which is responsible for the whole program of scientific research in the Antarctic. And I am prepared to have no pliant science and technology council. We conducted a scientific metric analysis and selected Ukrainian scientists with the highest Hirsch indexes on polar subjects. All of them are now invited to the Antarctic STC.”
What else do you plan to change in the near future?
“Some things just terrified me on getting here. One can go to the websites of Antarctic institutions from various countries, and there one will see, for example, video blogs of polar explorers who are blogging from stations themselves. The websites of the French Dumont d’Urville Station or the American McMurdo Station offer webcam video feeds, allowing one to see what is happening at the station right now.
“By the way of comparison: the Academician Vernadsky Station has, in 2018, text messages being sent by e-mail to the station once a week on Wednesdays, and from the station once a week on Fridays. There is a satellite Internet connection, which was installed back in the 1990s when it cost 7.5 dollars per megabyte. It turns out that nobody was looking for alternatives afterwards. I just did a regular Google search and it turned out that the Antarctic had changed a little over the years, there are currently about 20 satellite providers operating there, and prices are competitive. I think there will be proper internet access there starting with this shift, and after a couple of months, you will be able to get in touch in writing at least with each of the polar explorers, to see their blogs. It may seem to be a small detail, but that is what distinguishes the 20th century from the 21st.”
“IN THE ANTARCTIC LIKE IN CRIMEA, THE YEAR IS SPLIT INTO HIGH SEASON AND THE REST”
You have also told reporters that you want to extend the shift overlap period in Antarctica. Why is this important?
“If possible, this shift overlap period should last not three days, but at least a decade. Then it will be worth taking there a few more people who will have time to take samples for their research.
“Work in the Antarctic is divided into two parts: the wintering period and the high season. The wintering period is when 12 people spend there all year round, and then they are replaced by another shift. In the season, a random number of people arrive, over 30 at the peak, and 10 to 12 more commonly, they spend there a month or two, this is done in summer.
“Life in the Antarctic resembles that in Crimea. Year is clearly split into high season and the rest. In those three ice-free months of the Antarctic summer, there are a lot of people there with tourist liners coming in. For instance, the Academician Vernadsky Station has up to 4,000 visitors every season, since it is one of the oldest in Antarctica, having been built in 1947. This is really like in Crimea. And for the remaining nine months, again, like in Crimea, there is no activity there, because they are cut off by ice and have no access. Our 12 winterers do not see anyone except each other at this time, and this, I think, is the pinnacle of heroism – to spend nine months in complete isolation.
“Wintering is important, but not so much from a scientific point of view, as it is primarily needed to maintain the station. It cannot be abandoned for nine months, because everything will freeze and perish then. Six people out of the dozen are technical staff members who support the activities of the station. The rest are scientists. But little research can be done in the dead of polar night. First of all, scheduled observations are conducted, those that began in 1947, in the 1960s. They may not be interrupted. These are climate observations and monitoring of the ozone layer. By the way, Ukraine has added a bit to these observations. We have biologists wintering there as well, so now we see penguins not only in the summer when it is warm and nice, we can observe them surviving throughout the year as well.
“The high season is different. During it, a lot of people can come and everyone follows their own program. Geologists, magnetometrists, biologists. This is a very important period. Our season has almost disappeared recently due to problems with logistics. People come to the shift overlap period, winterers get replaced in five days, and one would do well to take samples over that time. But this is not how things should be done. And it affects the wintering period as well. One cannot teach a novice in five days. Thus, we have seen mostly people who have already wintered in Antarctica going there in recent years. There are about 180 old winterers in Ukraine, and we just reshuffle them. So, one of my tasks is to renew the so-called long season.”
If I understand you correctly, it is hampered by logistics now, isn’t it? After all, if it is so complicated, it is difficult to talk about the extension of the shift overlap period.
“It has turned out that in the Ukrainian conditions, 45 million hryvnias is a lot of money. Most of this amount will have to be spent on food, 140 tons of fuel, and hiring a ship to get people and goods to the station. The firm will be able to earn somewhere around 300,000 euros. Still, we have seen people competing for this tender with tooth and claw, including by non-conventional methods as well. Last year, they stopped ProZorro procurement procedures three times, and then the deal was done using the absolutely non-transparent negotiation procedure. This year, they are making every effort to force me to do the same.
“However our tender battles end, the ice will form in April. Water will freeze there. And the ProZorro system which I respect is still poorly protected against unfair complaints. Then the Antimonopoly Committee rejects these complaints, but they do delay the process.
“There are three bidders in this competition. All of them have some troubles with documentation, but all three really exist and have experience of doing such logistics. One of them did it in a non-transparent manner, but they still fulfilled the contract last year. For some reason, people believe that if I enter the negotiation procedure, then the contract will go precisely to the same company that won it last year. I do not really want to enter the negotiation procedure, but if that happens, people’s fears will not come true. The three companies that bid via the ProZorro system will be invited to negotiate, and the negotiations will be held in the presence of journalists.
“I am already feeling some pressure, but I am calm about it. We live in a country where corruption has not yet been overcome, but everyone must do everything to overcome it where they stand.”
How much time is left to complete the transaction?
“We must set off no later than the last days of March, but one cannot set off on the day of signing the agreement. I have about two weeks to complete it. We will manage. I will try to complete the negotiations in a week.”
“THE ENTIRE POLAR PROGRAM OF CHINA RELIES ON AN ICEBREAKER WHICH WAS BUILT IN KHERSON”
You have said that the NASC received about the two million euros this year. How far will you get with this money?
“This year, they have allocated money for capital spending for the first time in many years, and this is not my achievement. That is, it will not go to fund current repairs, but capital ones. There is a bit of money for the purchase of scientific equipment as well.
“Looking two steps forward, when we have overcome the current problems, then, firstly, we will need a ship. The history of our station is closely connected with the history of the research fleet of Ukraine. The British sold their station for one pound, that is, they gave it away. There were many nations willing to accept that gift. But Ukraine demonstrated that on gaining independence, we got 36 ships from the Soviet research fleet. That is, we were able to provide both the logistics of the station and the research in the polar seas with our fleet. It was on this basis that we were chosen as winners.
KYIV, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE, FEBRUARY 2016. A BOY EXAMINES THE “ACADEMICIAN VERNADSKY” MOCKUP. YEVHEN DYKYI ASSERTS: “THE LOCATION OF OUR STATION IS SOMEWHAT UNIQUE AND VALUABLE. WE ARE ON THE VERY FRONTLINE OF CLIMATIC CHANGES”
“Over these 22 years, we have preserved the station, but the fate of the fleet...”
Only one ship out of those 36 is now in repairable condition.
“Yes. I hope that Ostap Semerak [Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. – Author] will be as good as his word. He promised to allocate money for the repair of this ship this year. But it is still unsuitable for the Antarctic, it can only do research in the Black Sea. It has one engine, while one needs a ship with two main engines to go to the Antarctic.
“We have no Antarctic-capable ships left. The last one was Ernst Krenkel, which got scrapped in 2006.”
How did it happen that the scientific fleet was essentially destroyed? Did they not allocate funds for its maintenance?
“Exactly. And when a ship does not sail and gets no repairs, she starts to rust. After a while, it makes no sense to invest in her, so it is easier to sell her as scrap.
“Some ships of our fleet have been stolen. They were hired out to dubious companies, and then arrested in third-party ports over debts of these companies that were charterers, not owners, and sold at auction.
“We cannot afford to build a research fleet now. Technologically, incidentally, we are still capable of it. The entire polar program of the People’s Republic of China – and it is a very ambitious one, they already have three stations in the Antarctic and will soon have the fourth, and one station in the Arctic – has its logistics provided by one icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon). This Snow Dragon was built in Kherson and sold by Ukraine for pennies in 1993. But in fact, it is fortunate that she was sold to the Chinese for pennies because she is still alive and working for science.
“But let us go back to our fleet. From time to time, rich countries replace old ships with new ones. And their old ships, from our point of view, are still very good, they would still serve for 20 years. In particular, two ships of the British Antarctic Service will be retired in 2019. And since this structure has a good history of relations with us, there is a chance to successfully beg for one of these ships. If that fails, Australia will replace one icebreaker with a more modern one in 2020. We must look for other possibilities.
“Acquiring an Antarctic-capable ship will fundamentally change many things, for example, logistics. We will no longer depend on who wins the tender and will charter a ship. And the main thing, it will increase our scientific capabilities. Now we are tied to Galindez Island, where our station is located, and the nearest stretch of the coast. In general, we are tied to land, because we work at sea only near the coast, with scubas or from small motor boats. We do not work in the ocean. If we get a ship, we will have another direction added as we will start to work on the Southern Ocean.”
Until we have a research fleet, how can research be expanded?
“Ukraine benefits from the location of our station. It is somewhat unique and valuable. We are not located in the high Antarctic. Sixty-five degrees south is above the Antarctic Circle, we are on the very frontline of climatic changes. In our station’s neighborhood, glaciers are melting very fast, we are on the edge of the ozone hole, as its edges are pulsating, and we are below it for some years, and then below protected atmosphere for others. This provides great opportunities for international cooperation. On the other hand, this limits our opportunities, because some things can be studied only in much colder latitudes or deep inside the continent.
“We need to move forward. We will not afford this ourselves, it is just too expensive, but the age of bi-, tri- and multi-lateral stations has come to Antarctica. The most striking example is Concordia, an Italian-French station. I see our path to higher latitudes in this. I see us preserving the Vernadsky Station and building, say, two stations in cooperation with two or three other countries as a realistic option. It can be done in the next 10 to 15 years.”
“I AND MY COLLEAGUES ORGANIZED THE FIRST UKRAINIAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION ON OUR OWN”
Do you have any ideas with whom such cooperation could be established?
“Yes, I have some preliminary ideas. A Lithuanian Antarctic expedition will come to us for the first time next season. And just as the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian peacekeeping brigade is currently a remarkable example of international cooperation, a Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Antarctic station could do just as well as an example of cooperation.
“In general, I want to rename the NASC to the Center for Polar Research. Few countries can afford to split Arctic and Antarctic research. We do no research in the Arctic. It is wrong.
“Why do we need to do polar research at all? When a physician examines a patient, first of all they take the pulse. And this can be done on the arm and neck. The polar regions are two pulse areas of our planet. There, a number of processes that affect the entire planet, including Ukraine, can be measured much faster, more precisely and even cheaper. These include changes of climate, the magnetosphere, the upper layers of the atmosphere and the near space.
“Comparative studies in the Arctic and the Antarctic are very productive. Some Ukrainian scientists are determined to do so even now. Kharkiv radio astronomers have one antenna installed at the Academician Vernadsky Station, and the second at a Norwegian facility in the Svalbard Archipelago, which we know better as Spitsbergen. I and my colleagues organized the first Ukrainian Arctic expedition on our own in 2009. It worked at the Polish Hornsund Station in the Svalbard Archipelago.
“There is one more way for us to enter the Arctic. My first working day in the office of the head of the NASC ended with a Skype conference with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andrii Shevchenko. Canada has a dozen Arctic stations, but they do not have one in the Antarctic. Our situation is the opposite. That is why cooperation seems to be promising. I think that we will sign an agreement with the Canadians this summer. To begin with, it will deal with exchanges so that our scientists will be able to work at Canadian Arctic stations and vice versa. It can develop further afterwards.”
ABOUT TENSIONS NEAR THE POLES
Let us return to the Antarctic. In one of your earlier comments, you mentioned that keeping presence there was also important because access to its fossil resources would eventually be opened.
“The present system of agreements on the Antarctic will remain in force till 2048. It is not known if it will be extended. If I had to bet on it, I think I would bet two to one that it will be extended for another 50 years. We will see how it will turn out. According to the Antarctic Treaty presently in force, only fishing and krill harvesting are allowed, while extraction of mineral resources is prohibited. If the treaty does not get extended, a great fight for the Antarctic will begin, like that we are already seeing starting in the Arctic.
“Yes, the Arctic is becoming one of the internationally tense regions. Russia tries to reserve a considerable part of the region for itself and makes stupid symbolic gestures, such as placing a Russian flag on the seafloor on the North Pole. Other Arctic countries are increasing their military presence as well. Canada, for example, is concerned about Russia’s actions and has begun a serious program for the defense of the Arctic. Greenland, which belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, has not one Arctic base which would be purely scientific in purpose, as they are all officially naval ones.
“The Antarctic is protected so far by a system of international treaties, and it is like space, a common domain of humanity for now. But as soon as this system of treaties expires, a struggle will begin to determine who and how will extract something there. Incidentally, if this were to happen today, no Ukrainian company would be able to compete with Western companies for extracting anything there. However, Ukraine had enormous geological exploration experience, particularly on the sea shelf, so potentially we are one of the players.
“We fish a little in the Antarctic these days. Incidentally, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, if listed separately from the Soviet Union, was among the Top 10 fishing nations in the world. Today we are not even in the Top 50, but in the Antarctic, our positions have been preserved a bit. There is krill trawler More Spivdruzhnosti working there. Previously, she was registered in Sevastopol, but after the occupation of Crimea she re-registered in Kyiv. By size, she is the second-largest krill trawler in the world. She was built back in the Soviet time, when they loved big things. There are also three small Chinese-built longline vessels that catch tasty and scarce toothfish.
“Nobody prevents us from increasing catches. Any Ukrainian businessman has the right to buy a ship and extract living resources in the Antarctic within the overall quota set by the Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Resources.”
Do you already know when you will be able to get to Antarctica?
“Hopefully, it will happen in the end of March or early April. I will formally go there as director of the Antarctic Center to take possession of the property. In particular, I have to make an inventory of the station. But I am a biologist, after all. All scientists are crazy, so now I am already designing a short microbiology program for myself. I hope to grab some microbiological samples there and process them in Ukraine.
“Overall, this center is the most serious commission I have received from the nation to date.”
