Norway’s army chief has said Oslo cannot exclude the possibility of a future Russian invasion of the country, suggesting Moscow could move on Norway to protect its nuclear assets stationed in the far north.
In an interview with the Guardian, Gen Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway’s chief of defence, said, “We don’t exclude a land grab from Russia as part of their plan to protect their own nuclear capabilities, which is the only thing they have left that actually threatens the United States.”
He said that Russia does not have conquest goals in Norway in the same way as it has in Ukraine or other former Soviet territories, but said much of Russia’s nuclear arsenal is located on the Kola peninsula, a short distance from the Norwegian border, including nuclear submarines, land-based missiles and nuclear-capable aircraft.
These would be crucial if Russia came into conflict with Nato elsewhere.
“We don’t take that off the table, because it’s still an option for Russia to do that in order to make sure that their nuclear capabilities, their second strike capabilities are protected. That’s sort of the scenario in the high north that we plan for,” he said.
Kristoffersen was also sharply critical of recent comments by Donald Trump on Greenland, as well as of the US president’s “unacceptable” claims that allied countries had not served in frontline positions in Afghanistan, while US troops had done the bulk of the fighting.
“It didn’t make sense what he said and I know that all my American friends from Afghanistan know that,” said Kristoffersen, a career army officer who served several tours in Afghanistan.
“We were definitely in the frontline. We did all the full spectrum of missions, from arresting Taliban leaders to training Afghans to doing surveillance. We lost 10 Norwegians. I lost friends there. So we all felt it doesn’t make sense,” he said.
“At the same time, I felt that this is President Trump. I never saw him in Afghanistan. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he says these things. A president should not say these things, but it didn’t really affect me. But my concern was for the Norwegian veterans, the relatives of the people we lost, soldiers we lost,” he added.
Kristoffersen has served as Norway’s chief of defence since 2020, overseeing the armed forces and the country’s intelligence service during a period of major upheaval in European security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has reshaped regional defence planning, with Sweden and Finland joining Nato and Norway reinforcing its northern border with Russia.
Kristoffersen said that while Norway continues to factor in the possibility of a conventional Russian invasion, Moscow’s current approach is more fragmented.
“If you prepare for the worst, there is nothing that prevents you from also being able to counter sabotage and more hybrid threats,” he said.
Despite tensions, he noted that Norway and Russia maintain limited military-to-military contact, including cooperation on search-and-rescue operations in the Barents Sea and regular border meetings.
Kristoffersen said he has recommended establishing a military hotline between Oslo and Moscow to prevent escalation caused by miscalculation, adding that Russian activity in the far north has been less aggressive than in the Baltic Sea.
“So far, what we have seen of airspace violation in our area has been misunderstandings. Russia is conducting a lot of [GPS] jamming, and we think that the jamming also affects their aircraft. They haven’t said that, but we see that when something like violating the airspace happens it’s usually because of a lack of experience from the pilots. When we talk with the Russians, they actually respond in a very professional and predictable way,” he said.
On Svalbard, Norway’s Arctic territory governed by a 1920 treaty that bans militarisation and hosts a Russian settlement, Kristoffersen said Russia is “respecting the treaty” and that Oslo has no plans to militarise the area. He dismissed Moscow’s accusations of stealth militarisation as propaganda.
Addressing Trump’s claims that China and Russia have military ambitions in Greenland, Kristoffersen described the remarks as “very strange.”
“We have a very good overview of what is happening in the Arctic from our intelligence service and we don’t see anything like that in Greenland … We see Russian activity with their submarines and also their underwater programme in the traditional part of the Arctic … but it’s not about Greenland, it’s about reaching the Atlantic,” he said.
Asked whether Denmark and its allies could repel a hypothetical US military takeover of Greenland, Kristoffersen replied: “They won’t do it, so it’s a hypothetical question.”
He added a broader warning about military occupation: “If Russia is learning something from the war in Ukraine, I think it’s that it’s never a good idea to occupy a country. If the people don’t want it, it’s going to cost you a lot of money and a lot of effort and in the end you will actually lose. To occupy in the first place is often very easy, but to keep the occupation going is very, very hard. And I think all expansionist powers have experienced that.”
With inputs from agencies
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