NATO’s Arctic front line watches Russia as nuclear threats increase

KIRKENES, Norway — The Russian city of Nikel is a ghost town.

Norwegian border guards, from their observation tower a few miles away, peer over into the former factory city, which has seen its decline accelerated by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

They are the eyes and ears of NATO’s northern front line, across from Russia’s naval nuclear weapons base on the Kola peninsula, hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle.

“This is where Norway starts, this is where NATO starts,” said Lt. Col. Michael Rozmara, a commander in Norway’s border guards, speaking at the Garrison of Sør-Varanger in this tiny Arctic city at the northeastern edge of the Scandinavian state.

Norway’s border force is made of ruddy-cheeked, teenage conscripts — men and women — trained to survive the punishing physical and mental strain of the freezing, snow-covered and dark environs, where the sun barely crosses the horizon in the hardest days of the winter.

A small team of conscripts lives at the observation tower overlooking Nikel for stretches of three weeks, watching and patrolling a border they describe as having stayed relatively quiet since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

That’s despite plenty of saber-rattling from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly suggested red lines in his war against Ukraine and has often referenced the country’s massive nuclear stockpile.

This area also garnered global attention in January, when a fighter with the Russian private mercenary group Wagner slipped past Russia’s border patrols, seeking asylum in Norway.

But such a case was an exception, with Russia exercising tight security on its side of the border and against deserters.