The Viking Age: when Norwegian kings looked towards Kyiv
To understand how far back the ties go, we need to travel all the way back to the 11th century. In the Norse sagas, the lands to the east were called Gardarike, and one of the centres of power was Kyiv – known in Old Norse as Kænugard. This was the heart of the Kyivan Rus', an early East Slavic state with Kyiv, in present-day Ukraine, at its centre. Both Ukraine, Belarus and Russia trace their history back to this heritage, but it was in Kyiv that the key events took place.
Under Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, the connections to the Nordic kingdoms were close. No fewer than three Norwegian kings stayed at his court: Olav the Holy, who sought refuge there in 1028–1030; his son Magnus the Good, who grew up at the court; and Harald Hardrada. The latter fled eastward after the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, entered the service of Yaroslav, and later travelled on to the emperor's famous Varangian Guard in Miklagard – Constantinople at the time. When he returned as a very wealthy man in the 1040s, he married Yaroslav's daughter Elisaveta, known in Norway as Ellisiv of Kyiv. A Norwegian king and a princess from Kyiv – a royal bond between the two lands long before nations existed in the modern sense.
The connection was not only royal. Along the great trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" – down the Dnipro river, through Kyiv and onwards to the Black Sea – Nordic merchants and soldiers of fortune travelled in great numbers. Traces of them can still be found today, including in the magnificent St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, where Yaroslav the Wise himself is buried. Today, plans are also being made for a memorial in Oslo to highlight this shared Norwegian-Ukrainian medieval history.
Nansen: the Norwegian who saved Ukrainian lives
Nearly nine hundred years passed before the next great chapter was written – and this time it was a matter of life and death. In the aftermath of the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the civil war, Eastern Europe was struck by drought and a famine that is hard to comprehend. Around 30 million people were threatened by starvation in Ukraine, the Volga region and the North Caucasus, and millions lost their lives. Accounts from the famine areas described a level of suffering beyond human understanding.
Into this chaos stepped Fridtjof Nansen. The polar explorer and scientist had become a humanitarian and diplomat, and in 1921 he was appointed High Commissioner for the international relief operation known as the Nansen Mission. He negotiated directly with the authorities, and the agreements were extended to include Ukraine as well. Nansen travelled tirelessly, inspected the famine districts and fought to persuade European governments to fund the relief effort. At the same time, he solved another problem: the hundreds of thousands of stateless refugees without papers. The solution was the Nansen passport – an identity document that is the very foundation of modern international refugee law, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees traces its origins back to Nansen himself. For this work he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, and his efforts are credited with saving millions of lives. His name would take on new meaning a full century later.
The Second World War: Ukrainian traces in Norwegian soil
Not all chapters in this shared history are bright. During the Second World War, Nazi Germany sent around 100,000 Soviet prisoners of war to occupied Norway, where they were used as forced labourers. Nearly 500 prison camps were established across the country, two thirds of them in the northernmost counties, and the prisoners built roads, railways and fortifications under brutal conditions. Despite strict German bans on contact, compassion and secret help between the prisoners and local people arose in many places.
Among these prisoners were many Ukrainians. Ukraine was at that time part of the Soviet Union, and a great many Ukrainians served in the Red Army. Around 13,000 of the prisoners of war died on Norwegian soil from starvation, cold and mistreatment. Many of them rest today at Tjøtta war cemetery on the Helgeland coast. When peace came in 1945, more than 80,000 freed Soviet citizens were sent home from Norway in just two summer months. For several decades, the war graves remained a quiet – and far too often forgotten – bond between the peoples: a reminder that Ukrainian fates are woven deep into Norwegian wartime history.
A free Ukraine and new ties
When the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Norway was quick to recognise the new state. In the decades that followed, ties grew steadily across several areas: diplomacy, trade, energy expertise and culture. From the 2010s in particular, more Ukrainian labour migrants came to Norway, and a Ukrainian community began to leave its mark on Norwegian cities. The bonds also took on a practical dimension: Norway is a major maritime nation, and thousands of Ukrainian seafarers have over the years sailed on Norwegian-owned ships. Ukrainian congregations and associations also gradually grew in the country.
When Russia annexed Crimea and war broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Norway joined the international sanctions and condemned the violation of international law. It was a warning of the far greater challenge that lay ahead.
2022: Nansen's legacy comes to life
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it changed the security landscape for all of Europe – and for Norway. The response became the largest humanitarian and financial commitment in Norwegian history, and the name was no coincidence: the Nansen Programme, named after the man who once gave Ukrainians food.
The programme was launched in 2023 with the support of all parties in Stortinget, and the total budget is now around 275 billion Norwegian kroner for the period 2023 to 2030. It combines military, humanitarian and economic support, and is the largest aid programme Norway has ever had. The funds go both to weapons and defence equipment and to humanitarian relief, energy supply and the rebuilding of a country at war. At the same time, Norway opened its doors to people fleeing the conflict. More than 100,000 Ukrainians have applied for protection since 2022, around 85,000 currently have residence in Norway through the collective protection scheme, and nearly 27,000 of them are already in work. A full century after Nansen, Norway is once again acting on the belief that moral duty and political will must go hand in hand.
A history that continues
From Harald Hardrada's wedding in Kyiv in the 1040s to Ukrainian children starting Norwegian schools today, there is an almost thousand-year-long thread of contact between the two peoples. It runs through royal alliances, through Nansen's food and medicine, through war graves in the north and through today's solidarity. It is a history that very few people know – neither Norwegians nor Ukrainians – but one that binds the two countries together on a deeper level than today's news alone can show.
For you who are new to Norway and come from Ukraine, it may be worth knowing: you are not coming to a country that is a stranger to your history, but to a country that has been connected to it for centuries. And the chapter being written right now – like Nansen's was then – is about standing up for one another.
