Several settlements in Chukotka are entering winter with incomplete deliveries of coal and food, while regional authorities publicly describe the territory as developing steadily. Local residents report cold apartments, disappearing essential goods and sharply rising prices.
Local historian Yevgeny Basov says the 2025 northern delivery campaign, on which Arctic settlements depend for fuel and food, was delayed even though, in his account, ice and weather conditions in summer and September were favorable. He says ships only began arriving in October and November, when storms and ice were already hampering unloading.
The most difficult destinations are villages with unequipped shorelines, including Uelen, Inchoun, Enurmino, Neshkan, Nutepelmen, Vankarem, Ryrkaypiy and Billings. Basov says coal unloading is the hardest part: if ice closes in before the work is finished, residents could face heating shortages, and fuel would then have to be moved by all-terrain vehicles and helicopters at major extra budget cost.
According to the Chukotka news agency, as of November 1, only 250 of 4,500 planned tons of coal had been unloaded in Neshkan, 500 of 3,200 in Uelen, and 895 of 2,200 in Enurmino. In comments under the governor’s posts, residents say the navigation season has effectively failed, boiler houses are conserving coal, and temperatures in older homes are falling to just 7 to 10 degrees Celsius at night.
Questions have also been raised about a change of contractor. The regional administration awarded the coal supply contract to MZM Holding LLC, which the article says had not previously specialized in maritime logistics. At the same time, residents describe worsening variety in stores, shortages of baby formula and the high cost of staple goods, with chicken legs priced at 760 rubles per kilogram, butter at 1,800 rubles, and eggs at 600 rubles per ten.
With nighttime temperatures reaching minus 25 in Anadyr and minus 30 in surrounding areas, problems with fuel and supplies become critical. Basov also points to worn коммунal infrastructure, a shortage of skilled utility workers and aging housing stock, conditions that residents say leave frost forming on furniture and windowsills.