but barensburg is not in russia, it is norway. city is located on the norwegian archipelago of svalbard, more than 600 km north of mainland norway. by extraordinary legal status of the island group, people of any nationality can settle here. russians and ukrainians have historically made up the majority of bara's approximately 400 residents. burga, but that changed in 2022, when many ukrainians left here. kateryna shabradska, a ukrainian who left barensburg before the full-scale russian invasion of ukraine. she now lives in the nearby town of longyearbyen, the main norwegian settlement on svalbard. after the start of the full-scale war, many moved to longyearbyen from barensburg ukrainians 2022 changed everything. didn't want to spend time there anymore because there were many problems in 2022. i felt it and knew it, and i said, what the hell, i don't want to communicate with russians anymore. norwegian locals say that relations between the norwegian and russian settlements on the island were historically good, even during the col