War in the Arctic: Expert Explains What NATO’s Large-Scale Aurora 26 Exercises in the Baltic Sea Were Preparing For

Military expert Oleg Starikov commented on NATO’s large-scale Aurora 26 exercises in the Baltic Sea and assessed where and over what a future war could unfold, according to Politeka.

He spoke about this on his channel.

According to the expert, tensions in Northern Europe will continue to escalate, specifically in the Arctic — that is beyond doubt. The reason, he explains, is climate change: the ice is retreating, there are natural resources on the continental shelf, but the territory has not been divided and has no clear owner, so this issue will eventually have to be resolved.

“Since nothing there has been defined, after these two wars (editor’s note: the Russian-Ukrainian war and the conflict in the Middle East), the next one will be in the North. Northern countries are already preparing their forces for possible combat operations in the Arctic zone,” Oleg Starikov claims.

And preparation is indeed necessary, he notes, because conditions in the Arctic are extreme. At temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius, internal combustion engines face major problems, electric motors may not function properly, and there are also questions about drones — whether they will even be able to fly there, as the magnetic field could interfere. In addition, the expert says, a strong fleet is essential, since it is impossible to operate in the Arctic without icebreakers. Submarines are also important: they can be spotted from space, but once they move under the ice, they can hide, making it impossible to know from which direction a strike might come.

“The Arctic is a completely different situation that will fundamentally reshape the entire world order, which has already collapsed. The post-World War II order has fallen apart, and a new one will be established. A new division of the world — or at least fragmentation — will occur after the Arctic issue is resolved. There will likely be some kind of Yalta 2.0, an international conference of some sort, but I think this will happen after 2028–2030. Until then, the world will continue to be turbulent… God willing, the turbulence will not become as intense as the Russian-Ukrainian war,” Oleg Starikov concluded.