  A significant progress in the construction and operation of the Baikal
Gigaton Volume Detector in Lake Baikal, the largest and deepest freshwater lake
in the world, is reported. The effective volume of the detector for neutrino
initiated cascades of relativistic particles with energy above 100 TeV has been
increased up to about 0.25 cubic kilometer. This unique scientific facility,
the largest operating neutrino telescope in Northern Hemisphere, allows already
to register two to three events per year from astrophysical neutrinos with
energies exceeding 100 TeV. Preliminary results obtained with data recorded in
2016-2018 are announced. Multimessenger approach is used to relate finding of
cosmic neutrinos with those of classical astronomers, with X-ray or gamma-ray
observations and the gravitational wave events.
