Russian ship battles to rescue in ice-bound Alaska A Russian ship carrying desperately needed fuel battled through ice Wednesday to reach parts of frigid Alaska cut off by a severe winter storm in the US state, reports and officials said. The Russian tanker the "Renda" followed a US Coast Coastguard ice-breaker towards the town of Nome on Alaska's remote western coast, across the Bering sea from Russia's far east. The bone-chilling weather is harsh even by Alaska's standards, with huge snowdrifts and temperatures plunging down to 35 below zero Celsius (minus 31 Fahrenheit), according to the National Weather Service data. The Russian ship is carrying 1.3 million gallons of fuel for Nome, a city of some, 3,500 people which did not get its usual pre-winter oil delivery due to a storm in the fall. A special waiver had to be granted to allow the "Renda" to head to the rescue, as normally only US-owned and operated vessels would be allowed to make such deliveries, under a 1920 US law. In preparation for its arrival, the US Coast Guard warned Nome residents against traveling on the ice as the arrival of the cutter "Healy" and the Russian vessel could crack the frozen sea surface. "We are extremely concerned that the icebreaking vessels offshore may cause fractures in shore-fast ice near shore which could potentially pose a serious safety risk," said Lieutenant Nicole Auth of the Coast Guard in Nome. "We strongly encourage residents to remain on shore and avoid transiting on the ice as the ships transit in and out of the shore-fast ice until the ice has time to re-freeze," she added.