Russia Strips Arctic Air Defenses As Ukraine War Strains Military

Key military sites in Russia’s far north appear to have been deprived of their air defense assets, recent satellite images show, as the Kremlin attempts to counter an increasingly damaging Ukrainian drone campaign targeting sites elsewhere in the country. Satellite images sourced by RFE/RL show the Kremlin has shuffled units from several strategic sites once heavily protected by S-300 and S-400 missile systems, leaving little apparent air defense in place.

Around the Rogachevo air base in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago of Russia’s Arctic region, a missile base that has been in place since at least August 2015 has had most of its air defense assets removed, a July 6 image shows. Katarzyna Zysk, a professor with the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies told RFE/RL that the apparent disappearance of many air defense assets from Russia’s far north represents “a growing mismatch between the targets Russia must protect and its available launchers, interceptors, and trained personnel.”

Zysk stresses that the apparent emptying of longstanding missile sites does not indicate Russian strategic sites are now entirely without air defense cover. But she says “it suggests that Russia does not anticipate an imminent large-scale attack in the [far north] region and judges that it can reduce protection there without incurring unacceptable risk.” Kyiv’s drone campaign has largely targeted sites directly linked to Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine such as airfields used for bombing runs, and the invading country’s energy infrastructure.

Open source investigations have estimated that some 60 percent of Russia’s S-300 and more modern S-400 air defense systems have been moved away from sites where they were stationed before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Air defense units have largely remained in place around Russia’s nuclear missile silos, and strategic bomber airfields.

In Severodvinsk, a city on the White Sea where Russia’s nuclear submarines are built and repaired, several sites where air defense systems have stood for decades to guard the strategically vital site are now empty. Some two dozen S-300 and S-400 systems have disappeared from apparently purpose-built locations around the city, recent images show.

According to The Barents Observer, the whereabouts of one missile system moved out of Severodvinsk was traceable to the combat death of a commander of an S-400 missile system. Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Spiridonov was killed in Crimea in April 2024 and his remains returned to the far northern city for burial. As air defense systems disappear from the far north, others have appeared alongside more likely targets for Ukraine’s drone attacks. The below images, showing an empty field later populated by multiple missile launch vehicles with their missile tubes elevated, were made near the Saratov oil refinery in southwestern Russia. The site has been hit by drones multiple times since early 2025. Other locations, including city parks in Moscow, have been commandeered for S-400 batteries in recent weeks.