The development of this 25-megawatt (LK25) icebreaker dates back to the first long-term plans for rebuilding the Russian icebreaker fleet after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
As part of these plans that were published in the early 1990s, a number of both conventional and nuclear-powered icebreaker icebreaker type size series were developed, ranging from 7-megawatt auxiliary icebreakers (LK-7) operating near large ports to 110-megawatt nuclear icebreakers (LK-110Ya) capable of breaking ice up to 3.5 metres (11 ft) thick. Of these, the 25-megawatt line icebreakers (LK-25) were intended to escort merchant ships and lead convoys through freezing seas, and operate as auxiliary ships in complex convoys along the Northern Sea Route. During the summer season, they could also escort ships independently over shallow waters in the Arctic.
While an early LK-25 concept was presented already in the 1990s, the current design, Project 22600, was developed in 2008 by the Russian Petrobalt Design Bureau in co-operation with the Finnish Aker Arctic who had developed the hybrid propulsion configuration and carried out model-scale tests for the concept. Following the challenging winter navigating season of 2010–2011 the Russian government decided to proceed with LK25, on 2 December 2011, Rosmorport and St. Petersburg-based Baltic Shipyard signed the contract and the keel-laying ceremony was held on 10 October 2012.
The ship was initially expected to enter service in the Gulf of Finland in December 2015 and would be named after Viktor Chernomyrdin (1938–2010) the founder and first chairman of Gazprom.
In November 2014, it was reported that the construction of the icebreaker had been suspended already in December 2013 due to problems with the design and the delivery had been until July 2017.
In 2016 come out other issues related to building costs... the vessel was finally launched on 30 December 2016 and in July 2017 the unfinished icebreaker was transferred to Admiralty Shipyard for outfitting. On 27 November 2018, a fire broke out on board the vessel, injuring two workers and damaging about 300 square meters of technical spaces.
In April 2020 the disagreement had been settled and finally the flag raising ceremony was held on 3 November 2020.
I started drawing LK25 but most of the sources are not matching each other... At the end I decided to start from the original design of 2011 and to modify it into the final (real) situation, that maintains the hull.
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