Ukrainian reality check for Kirkenes security talks

The Kirkenes Conference used to brand itself as a meeting point and discussion ground for Norwegian and Russian government officials and business interests.

Kirkenes is located only few kilometres from the Russian border and local and national authorities alike for decades tried to develop the small town to a hub for cross-border regional cooperation.

Over years, the cooperation developed on the backdrop of the Kremlin's increasingly  repressive policies and militarisation of society. The local establishment long refused to acknowledge the changing reality.

When then Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende in his keynote address at the Kirkenes Conference of 2015 harshly criticized Russia for its annexation of the Crimea and the war in Donbas, he was met with a storm of protest from the conference audience, not only from the visiting governor of Murmansk, but also from the local establishment.

The same was the case when then Foreign Minister Ine Søreide Eriksen a few years later said that the relationship with Russia had "permanently changed."

For most locals, the aggression exerted by the Kremlin in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine and beyond was not seen as compatible to the north and Norway’s borderlands towards Russia.

Moscow’s narratives about a special relationship in the north resounded in Kirkenes. Local politicians cultivated close relations with neighboring Russian towns and municipalities, among them Pechenga rayon, Murmansk and the navy city of Severomorsk. The Kirkenes town mayor of the time stood on the vip stage in Severomorsk as the Northern Fleet demonstrated its might in the 2018 and 2019 Navy Day parades. Even after the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, the Kirkenes town Mayor expressed strong opposition to sending Norwegian weapons to Ukraine. The regional Finnmark County Council leader spoke out against imposing sanctions on Russia.

In 2025, it is all a very different story.

This year’s Kirkenes Conference was opened by Mayor Magnus Mæland who said that the relationship with Russia had changed ‘for generations.’

"No matter how the war ends, with an imperialistic so-called ‘solution’ or with victory for Ukraine, our trust in Russia is broken for generations,” the mayor said.

He added that “we can not be naive in our encounter with Russia” and that Kirkenes “is not the place for symbolic dialogue.”

“Kirkenes wants to be a safe harbor for those that want democracy and freedom,” he underlined.

In the conference hall was Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who described the regional security situation as “the most serious since the Second World War.”

“The situation in the world has changed, for a long time, and especially here in the north.”

“We must be prepared that war one day can come to Norway,” he said. But quickly added an assurance that “there is no imminent threat of war.” 

In an interview to the Barents Observer, the PM reiterated the need for preparedness.

“We have to be prepared, Russia has moved in a very authoritarian and military direction, they have proven that they are willing to attack a neighboring country. So we have to have a realistic defense capability in the North and the Arctic.”

In this year’s Kirkenes Conference, there were Ukrainians, and not Russians, that participated in the debate sessions. And it was Ukrainian perspectives and experiences that were centerstage.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Norway Oleksiy Gavrysh himself had to flee from his home in Donbas when the war started in 2014.

He warns Norway.

"Allow me to focus on one of the most alarming trends of our time — the growing aggression and revanchism of the Russian Federation and the critical danger of ignoring the risk of its neighborhood,” he said in his address.

“I am here to share our experience and our mistakes and the crucial conclusions we have drawn. The world is changing and everybody has to be ready for these changes,” he added

Gavrysh argues that the Arctic is far from isolated from the war in Ukraine.

“While the world is preoccupied with the war and suffering in Ukraine, Russia continues to build up its military presence in the Arctic, strengthening strategic positions in the region that should be a zone of demilitarization and dialogue. As a nation committed to peace and international law we urge you to see this interconnection.”

Gavrysh did not want to elaborate to the Barents Observer about Norwegian-Russian relations. 

But his message thrust a chill of realism over the Kirkenes conference hall.