It also said it had also confirmed the existence of an island that had been previously mapped as a peninsula of Hall Island, part of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, west of Novaya Zemlya. The islands had previously been seen on satellite images but the expedition was the first to see them. “We were very lucky because we could land on islands where not every year the shore and the inshore water is free of ice.”ĭuring the expedition, the defence ministry announced it had found five new islands in Vize Bay off Novaya Zemlya, a vast mountainous archipelago with two main islands.

“The two months this year when we held our expedition to Franz Josef Land can be described as warm,” said Denis Krets, commander of the northern fleet’s expedition force. Video of expedition members encountering an angry walrus that attacked their inflatable landing craft went viral last month. Map of new islands revealed by melting glaciers