Glaciers Today

Russian Arctic

How this region’s glaciers are changing – monthly data from CryoSat-2

July 2026 bulletin

What's happening to Russian Arctic's glaciers?

The Russian Arctic is home to roughly 1,070 glaciers, comprising about 7% of Earth’s total glacier area. These glaciers are distributed across archipelagos such as Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land. Since the early 2000s, the Russian Arctic has experienced widespread glacier mass loss, especially in the Barents and Kara Sea sectors. This retreat is closely linked to warming air temperatures, sea-ice decline, and intrusions of warmer Atlantic waters into Arctic seas.