12:55 04-09-2025

Russia’s Arctic Base on Wrangel Island Sparks U.S. Dispute

Boris Solovyev, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The National Interest reports Russia is fortifying Wrangel Island with the Ushakovskoye base and Sopka-2 radar, reigniting U.S. claims of Arctic territory.

American commentator Brandon Weichert, writing for The National Interest, claimed that Russia is secretly establishing a military outpost in the Arctic on what he described as «American territory.»

According to Weichert, Moscow has «illegally occupied Wrangel Island for more than a century» and has now reinforced its position there with a military base. He argued that the site, known as Ushakovskoye, hosts an advanced Sopka-2 radar system capable of operating in extreme Arctic conditions — withstanding temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius and winds reaching 40 meters per second.

The Sopka-2 station, he noted, can track U.S. and NATO aircraft almost in real time while also monitoring activity along the Northern Sea Route. The radar features a phased-array antenna with a range of up to 350 kilometers and is supported by additional systems designed to identify airborne targets.

Weichert described the Ushakovskoye facility as the «tip of the spear» in Russia’s Arctic military build-up, alleging that it includes an airfield, barracks, fuel depots, and communications hubs. He contrasted today’s situation with a decade ago, when Wrangel Island hosted little more than a weather station and reindeer herders’ camps. Recent satellite images, he wrote, reveal extended runways and expanded storage facilities that have turned the remote nature reserve into a fortified outpost.

The author also pointed to the island’s contested history. Wrangel was first discovered by a Russian expedition in 1823, while the United States laid claim to it in 1881 under the so-called Guano Islands Act. An American flag briefly flew over the territory in 1921, but by 1924 the island was firmly under Soviet control.