Russia redeploys air defence systems from Arctic to protect against Ukrainian drones – media. SATELLITE IMAGES
Russia is redeploying air defence systems from its key military facilities in the Far North to protect itself against Ukrainian drone attacks.
Radio Liberty reports this, citing an analysis of satellite imagery, Censor.NET informs.
Abandoned positions in the Arctic and Severodvinsk
Satellite imagery shows that the Kremlin has moved units away from several strategic facilities previously heavily protected by S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems. Almost no air defence assets are now visible at some of the positions.
"These movements may indicate that long-range strikes are creating an increasingly difficult dilemma for Russia: Moscow is being forced to distribute its limited air defence systems among military airfields, energy facilities, strategic bases and other potential targets," Radio Liberty writes.
Near the Rogachovo airbase on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Russian Arctic, most air defence assets have disappeared from a missile position that had existed since at least August 2015. This is visible in satellite imagery taken on 6 July.
Katarzyna Zysk, a professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, believes that the removal of a significant number of air defence assets from Russia’s Far North points to "a growing mismatch between the facilities Russia must protect and the launchers, interceptor missiles and trained personnel available to it."
At the same time, she emphasises that the abandonment of long-standing missile positions does not mean that Russia’s strategic facilities are now completely without air defence cover. According to her, it "indicates that Russia does not expect a large-scale attack in the Far North in the near future and believes it can reduce the level of protection there without exposing itself to unacceptable risk."
Open-source investigators estimate that around 60% of Russia’s S-300 air defence systems and the more advanced S-400 systems have been moved from the positions they occupied before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Areas containing intercontinental ballistic missile silos and strategic aviation airfields remain the most heavily protected.
In addition, Russia is reducing the number of air defence systems around Severodvinsk, a city on the White Sea coast where Russian nuclear submarines are built and repaired.
"Several sites where air defence systems had protected this strategically important centre for decades are now empty. Recent satellite imagery indicates that around two dozen S-300 and S-400 systems have disappeared from prepared positions around the city," Radio Liberty writes.
Batteries near oil refinery and in Moscow parks
Instead, the Russians are deploying new air defence batteries near facilities that are highly likely to be targeted by Ukrainian drones.
In particular, satellite imagery of the area around the Saratov Oil Refinery shows several missile launchers with raised transport-launch canisters appearing in a previously empty field. Ukrainian drones have repeatedly attacked the refinery since the beginning of 2025.
In recent weeks, S-400 systems have also begun to be deployed directly in Moscow parks.
"Such decisions demonstrate that the Kremlin is prepared to remove systems from remote strategic regions to protect political and industrial centres within range of Ukrainian drones," the report states.
