Polar bears take over abandoned Soviet-era research station in Russian Arctic

In September 2025, a group of polar bears was seen inhabiting an abandoned Soviet polar research station on Kolyuchin Island in the Chukchi Sea. The station, deserted for over 30 years, now offers shelter from Arctic weather for the bears.

Travel blogger Vadim Makhorov used a drone this month to capture striking footage of polar bears roaming among the crumbling buildings of the deserted Soviet station. Some looked curiously out of windows; others used the interiors for refuge from wind and cold. 

The facility sits on Kolyuchin Island, off the far northeastern coast of Russia in the Chukchi Sea. Scientists abandoned it soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, leaving behind structures now overtaken by nature, and, it appears, polar bears. 

Makhorov said the bears “see these houses as shelter from the wind, rain and other things.” Despite their imposing size, the animals appeared relatively undisturbed in many of the drone shots, though one bear snapped at the drone when it came too close. 

Experts suggest that as sea ice becomes more unreliable due to climate change, polar bears are increasingly forced into land-based alternatives for shelter. Abandoned human structures, especially in very remote, lightly visited areasare becoming unexpected refuges.

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