Project 22220, also known through the Russian type size series designation LK-60Ya, is a series of Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers. The lead ship of the class, Arktika, was delivered in 2020 and surpassed the preceding Soviet-built series of nuclear-powered icebreakers as the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world.

As of November 2025^[update], four Project 22220 icebreakers (Arktika, Sibir, Ural and Yakutiya) are in service, the fifth (Chukotka) has been launched, and the sixth (Leningrad) and seventh (Stalingrad) have been laid down at Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg.

After the Second World War, the Soviet Union launched an ambitious marine transportation development program with the intention of turning the ice-covered Northern Sea Route into a navigable shipping route which could be then used to extract natural resources from the Arctic. This included replacing the obsolete steam-powered icebreakers with more powerful diesel-electric vessels and culminated with the construction of the first nuclear-powered icebreaker in the late 1950s. The second phase, which began in the early 1970s and continued until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, further expanded the Soviet icebreaker fleet with additional nuclear- and diesel-powered icebreakers that enabled uninterrupted year-round operation in the western part of the Northern Sea Route as well as extended the navigating season in the eastern sector.

In the 1980s, studies by the Central Marine Research and Design Institute (CNIIMF) and the Central Design Bureau "Iceberg" resulted in "icebreaker type size series" ranging from 7-megawatt auxiliary icebreakers (LK-7) to a 110-megawatt nuclear-powered "icebreaker-leaders" (LK-110Ya). One of the proposed new icebreaker classes, LK-60Ya, was developed as a direct replacement for the previous-generation Arktika-class nuclear-powered icebreakers which had entered service in the late 1970s and seen widespread use in the Russian Arctic. In addition to operating as heavy line icebreakers along the full length of the Northern Sea Route from Murmansk all the way to the Bering Strait, the new 60-megawatt icebreakers would also replace the shallow-draft nuclear-powered icebreakers Taymyr and Vaygach on the Dudinka-Murmansk route which included icebreaking operations in the Yenisey river estuary. The latter operation was made possible by the novel dual-draft functionality, ability to de-ballast the vessel when approaching shallow coastal areas. Other technical characteristics of the next-generation nuclear-powered icebreakers were drawn from the Russians' extensive operational experience from Arctic shipping. For example, it was determined that in order to ensure reliable year-round navigation in the western part of the Northern Sea Route, LK-60Ya would have to be capable of breaking at least 2.8-metre (9 ft) ice, an improvement over the old Arktika's 2.3-metre (8 ft) icebreaking capability. In addition, escorting Russian Arctic cargo ships such as the then-common SA-15 type safely and efficiently in heavy ice conditions would require an icebreaker with a beam of 32 to 33 metres (105 to 108 ft) and a displacement of 34,000 to 36,000 tonnes (33,000 to 35,000 long tons).

While traffic volumes along the Northern Sea Route declined drastically in the early 1990s due to the slowdown of the Russian economy, an ambitious fleet renewal program was nonetheless launched under the presidential program Revival of the Merchant Fleet of Russia (1993–2000). In the end, none of the planned icebreakers were built and the follow-up federal program Modernization of the transport system of Russia (2002–2010) included funding for the construction of only two new diesel-electric icebreakers in addition to completing the unfinished Arktika-class icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy and starting the preliminary design development of the next generation nuclear-powered icebreakers.

Although the preliminary design had been developed already in the late 1980s, the final technical design of LK-60Ya was completed in 2009 by Central Design Bureau "Iceberg" as Project 22220.

The construction of the lead ship was awarded to Saint Petersburg-based Baltic Shipyard, part of the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation, in August 2012 with a contract price of 36.959 billion rubles (about US$1.16 billion). A 84.4 billion ruble (about US$2.4 billion) follow-up contract for two additional vessels was signed in May 2014 and a second contract, worth over 100 billion rubles (about US$1.5 billion), for two more in August 2019. In January 2023, the Russian government allocated 58.9 billion rubles (about US$820 million) for financing 50% of the construction of two additional Project 22220 icebreakers and the shipbuilding contract was signed on 2 February.

With the Project 22220 icebreakers under construction, focus moved to the development of even larger and more powerful nuclear-powered icebreakers known as Project 10510 "Leader" (Russian: Лидер, romanized: Lider), with the first ship expected to be commissioned by the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in 2027. However, the construction of the nuclear-powered icebreakers in Russia have been affected by the international sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War since 2022. The first Project 10510 icebreaker, Rossiya, has been delayed until 2030 and the second and third hulls were cancelled in early 2023 in favour of two additional Project 22220 icebreakers.