Two Men Spotted Drifting on Ice Sheet Down Russia's Neva River

Two men were spotted standing on a small ice sheet as it floated down the Neva River in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Monday, March 23, before plunging into the frigid waters and swimming back to shore. The episode, captured on video and shared widely on social media, drew immediate attention as the river approaches the tail end of its annual freeze.

Video posted by Instagram user @_s.assa.sa shows the duo appearing relaxed as the ice drifted slowly down the river, with one of them appearing to smoke a cigarette. Neither appeared to be wearing waterproof clothing. Further footage posted by local media showed the men jumping into the river, with one holding an object above his head, possibly a phone, as they made their way back to dry land.

It was unclear how the men came to be standing on the ice floe, and no details were available about their identities or their conditions after jumping into the cold water.

The stunt carried real physical risk. The Neva freezes throughout from early December to early April, with ice thickness measuring 0.3 to 0.4 metres within Saint Petersburg. Late March marks the period when that ice begins to break apart and drift, making the floes structurally unpredictable. The Neva is a deep and wide river, with a maximum depth of 24 meters and an average width of 400 to 600 meters. Swimming those distances in near-freezing meltwater poses serious hypothermia risk even to healthy adults.

The Neva is far from the only river where ice floes have recently turned into an unlikely stage for human drama. In February 2026, NYPD Harbor Unit officers spotted an injured bald eagle on an ice floe in the Hudson River, crying out for help. Officers wrangled the eagle, which had a bleeding leg, and transported it for rehabilitation. And in a 2018 incident in Moncton, New Brunswick, a man police say fled the scene of an assault chose a large piece of ice on the Petitcodiac River as his getaway vessel. The floe jammed, rescue teams offered him a rope and life jacket which he refused, and the Canadian Coast Guard dispatched a search-and-rescue helicopter before the man finally clambered to shore and was arrested. "He's very lucky to still be with us," Dieppe District Fire Chief Marc Cormier said at the time.

The Saint Petersburg men, for their part, appear to have fared better, trading the drift for a cold swim and making it back to the bank under their own power.