See how Russia is winning the race to dominate the Arctic

Moscow is growing its footprint at the top of the world, working with China, and leaving the US behind

- Daniel Kiss, Thomas Grove, Vipal Monga, Austin Ramzy & Roque Ruiz

Things in the Arctic have never been hotter. In the past year, Russian nuclear submarines have practiced firing cruise missiles near NATO members Norway, Finland and Sweden. That drill followed Arctic wargames by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that included amphibious assaults in the frigid seas.

When Russian and Chinese bombers flew together north of Alaska in August, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski described the move as an "unprecedented provocation by our adversaries." The following month, Russia and China sent patrol boats through icy waters of the high north.

The U.S. and Russia are only 53 miles apart across the Bering Strait, near the Arctic Circle. Geopolitically, they are more distant than in decades.

The Arctic has warmed nearly four times as fast as the rest of the planet in recent decades, according to researchers, who call the phenomenon Arctic amplification.

Sea-ice cover in the Arctic has shrunk from an annual minimum of 2.7 million square miles in 1979 to 1.7 million square miles in 2024, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. That represents the loss of an area the size of Argentina in less than 50 years.

As the sea-ice has retreated, the number of high-latitude voyages taken by ships through the region has advanced.

During the Cold War, both sides deployed some of their most powerful weapons and surveillance systems in the region.

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the U.S. shrank its bases in Alaska, and Russia's Arctic forces decayed. The two countries cooperated on issues including the environment, fisheries and maritime safety.

Now, rising animosity is prompting Russia and NATO to renew military deployments in the region because it offers each side prime territory from which to strike, said Rob Huebert, the interim director of the University of Calgary's Center for Military, Security and Strategic Studies.