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On September 10, it was reported that a joint operation between the UK, US and Norway earlier in 2026 successfully disrupted Russian vessels simulating the deployment of a weapon designed to disable undersea cables near the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
Russia has also deployed an underwater surveillance network in recent years made up of cables, sensors and sonar to detect Nato submarines in Arctic waters. The Northern Fleet, which is responsible for Russia’s nuclear defence, is based on the Kola Peninsula near the border with Norway.
At the same time, Russia’s state-controlled energy company Rosneft has pushed forward with its Vostok Oil project, a vast Arctic development through which Moscow aims to boost oil production. Russia recently began exporting oil from the project commercially.
Much of Russia’s oil is exported by its shadow fleet, a network of sanctioned tankers that operate from the Russian Arctic. The fleet has expanded rapidly since 2022, with some of its vessels suspected of engaging in spying and sabotage in European waters.
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The Finnish prime minister, Petteri Orpo, told the dignitaries gathered in Rovaniemi that “Russia is the most significant threat” to the European Arctic. He added that there was a high demand for “concrete action from the EU”. But what form should this action take?
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There are two main priority areas. First, Europe needs to boost its capacity to monitor and react to Russian activities in the Arctic. Intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance remain a key challenge in the high north, primarily due to the existence of satellite communication gaps at high latitudes.
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The second priority is to bolster the physical presence of EU states in the Arctic. Third-party Nato states such as the UK already work closely with Iceland and Norway, two of the EU’s key Arctic partners. There are 1,500 Royal Marines stationed at Camp Viking in northern Norway alone.
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Protecting Europe against Russian threats is perhaps the core driver of the desire to strengthen the EU’s Arctic presence. But EU leadership also recognise that the Arctic is undergoing environmental change. This change will inevitably necessitate more activity in the region, beyond mere deterrence.
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