Record number of official visits to Svalbard last year

In the spring, Russian submarines simulated the deployment of new technology designed to disable critical undersea cables near Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. However, the Russian exercise was exposed and thwarted by Norway, the UK and the US, anonymous Western officials told Reuters.

More specifically, the exercise was reportedly conducted by Russia's Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research (GUGI).

In April, the UK and Norway announced that they had been monitoring Russian submarines from the Kola Peninsula that attempted to map underwater infrastructure in the North Atlantic. The discovery of the new weapon near Svalbard and the US involvement have not been previously reported.

Climate change is altering the landscape of Svalbard at an accelerating pace. Satellite images from this summer reveal that a new island has emerged from beneath Svalbard’s largest glacier, Austfonna, as the ice has melted away.

The Norwegian Polar Institute announced this in a press release.

The small island—roughly the size of Frogner Park—is a new addition to Svalbard’s many Arctic islands. Located off the southeastern coast of Austfonna in Harald V Land, it was previously connected to the mainland by the glacier; however, the glacier has since retreated, opening up a strait between the island and the main ice mass.

"We first spotted it about a month ago in satellite images taken this summer," says Geir Moholdt, a glaciologist at the Norwegian Polar Institute.

The fact that there is now a gap of several hundred meters between the front of Austfonna and the island suggests that warm ocean water is the primary cause—a finding consistent with the ocean warming observed east of Svalbard in recent years. There are strong indications that this trend will continue.

"Svalbard’s glaciers are retreating onto land. As they pull back, fjords lengthen, and the glaciers will eventually be situated entirely on land. At the same time, they are thinning due to warmer summers characterized by significant melting. In recent years, Svalbard’s glaciers have lost an average of more than a meter of surface ice annually. That is far more than what has been observed previously," Moholdt points out.

On Thursday, Norwegian authorities seized a Russian vessel docked in Barentsburg. Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Norway of piracy.

The seizure of the Russian ship Professor Molchanov stems from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A compensation claim of $4.2 billion has been lodged against the vessel.

Professor Sven G. Holtsmark is an expert on Russian foreign policy.

"The crucial point is that their interests in the Arctic and their interests in Ukraine are vastly different. In Ukraine, the goal was to subjugate the country," he tells Forsvarets forum.

Holtsmark works at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies at the Norwegian Defence University College.

Russia transports large quantities of liquefied gas from facilities in Yamal, Siberia. This gas is shipped along routes through the High North—either eastward to China or to Europe via the Norwegian coast.

"This transport is vital for Russia, and it is unlikely that the country desires a situation that could undermine stability," says Holtsmark.

"Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has not made statements suggesting that Norway's participation in sanctions or its supply of weapons to Ukraine threatens to destabilize this situation."

Eight US senators and their staff visited the Norwegian Arctic archipelago Svalbard last weekend. This is reported by Svalbardposten, among others.

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski led the delegation, which was invited by UiT, the Arctic University of Norway.

"We are here with a bipartisan message about the importance of our allies, and Norway is obviously one of them. The challenges in the Arctic are enormous, the Arctic is an enormous region, and the United States cannot solve everything alone. It is important that we can work together with our allies to solve the challenges we have in the Arctic," Shaheen tells the newspaper.

According to Svalbardposten, the agenda included a presentation of Arctic climate research, as well as visits to Isfjord Radio and UNIS - the university centre in Svalbard.

"When we see the Arctic warming and new dangers emerging in the Arctic, it is very important for us to get a better understanding of what those challenges are and to ensure that we have a bipartisan understanding of what the United States can do," says Shaheen.

The Norwegian Veterinary Institute has detected avian influenza (bird flue) in a polar bear and a walrus in Raudfjorden on Spitsbergen. The virus is of the subtype H5N5 and has previously been found in wild birds, a walrus, and Arctic foxes in Svalbard.

This is the first time that avian influenza has been found in polar bears in Europe. The virus has only been detected in this species once before, in Alaska in 2023.

“These findings are part of the ongoing spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Europe, where the virus is increasingly being detected in mammals. In recent years, it has also expanded into new areas, including the Arctic, where it may impact vulnerable wildlife populations and fragile ecosystems,” says Dr. Ragnhild Tønnessen, avian influenza coordinator at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute.

On January 1st, 2026, 2,512 people lived in Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, and 392 people lived in Barentsburg and Pyramiden. The Svalbard population is characterized by a lot of immigration and emigration, and generally short residence times.

At the same time, the archipelago is experiencing increasing diversity of citizenship. At the turn of the year, 66 distinct citizenships were represented among the population.

This is reported by Statistics Norway.

The residence rate in Svalbard remains low. Of all residents of Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund at the beginning of 2025, just under 80 percent were still living there one year later. By comparison, the average population turnover in mainland municipalities was around 5 percent in the same period. This shows that a significant proportion of the population in Svalbard changes every year.

The first seed sample deposit in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault 2026 took place this week.

Seeds from two new countries, Guatemala and Niger, were deposited for the very first time, and the seed vault also received its first deposit of olive seeds. A total of 7,864 seed samples from ten depositors came to the Arctic facility for long-term storage.