like the preceding project 21900 icebreakers, the new icebreakers are also named after major cities of russia with "novorossiysk" representing the main russian port city on the black sea. while a similar naming scheme was also used for a series of five diesel-electric polar icebreakers built by the finnish shipbuilder wärtsilä in the 1960s, "novorossiysk"s 1965-built soviet-era counterpart, "kiev", was named the city that became the capital city of ukraine following the dissolution of the soviet union.