Satellite images of Severodvinsk show two empty missile positions. Roughly two dozen S-300 and S-400 air-defense systems that once guarded the town, Russia’s nuclear submarine construction center, have been removed since 2024, the Barents Observer reported on July 11, 2026. Its analysis of the imagery points to Yagry Island’s Coastal Missile Battery and Mironov Hill’s Coastal Missile Defence Battalion, both now largely abandoned.
Severodvinsk is not the only gap. Near the Rogachevo air base on Novaya Zemlya, equipment visible in 2015 imagery is gone from the 2026 pictures. Kyiv Post, relaying research cited by Radio Liberty, said around 116 battalions and 580 transporter-erector launchers had been pulled from permanent posts, drawn from the Eastern, Central and Leningrad Military Districts. Analysts quoted by RBC-Ukraine put the share of S-300 and S-400 systems moved from their original positions at “around 60%” compared with before the 2022 invasion.
Where the batteries went
Ukrainian drones explain most of it. The Barents Observer said the systems probably went to southern Russia, the Moscow region or occupied Ukraine. Around the Saratov oil refinery, imagery from August 2025 shows heavy air-defense coverage in a spot that was largely empty in May 2023. RBC-Ukraine added that batteries are turning up in Moscow’s city parks.
The strain on stockpiles is part of the picture. Kristian Åtland, quoted by the Barents Observer, said Russia is “burning through its interceptor missile stockpiles faster than the defence industry can replace them.” That pushes Moscow to defend big cities first. Per Erik Solli of NUPI described the bind plainly: “Russia lacks the resources to defend every potential target within range of Ukrainian weapons.”
Refineries are one reason the pressure is real. Kyiv Post tied the redeployment to intensified drone strikes that cut crude processing to 3.91 million barrels daily, the lowest rate since 2005.
A calculated risk in the far north
A Norwegian defense expert told Radio Liberty that Moscow does not expect a large attack in the region and “judges that it can reduce protection there without incurring unacceptable risk.” Ukraine, for its part, has not struck the submarine shipyards directly, the Barents Observer noted. It has gone after air bases involved in operations against Ukraine.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, writing for Fox News on July 27, 2026, read the withdrawal as a window for NATO. “Advanced air-defense systems are disappearing from established Arctic positions even as Russia pours concrete for barracks and depots closer to Finland and Norway,” he wrote. He pointed to expanding bases at Pechenga, Kandalaksha and Petrozavodsk, and urged the alliance to strengthen its northern defenses while the gap lasts.
Sources
- Satellite imagery indicates air-defence systems redeployed from Severodvinsk
- Russia Redeploys Air Defense From Arctic Circle to Fend Off Ukrainian Drones
- Russia's Arctic air defenses left without S-300 and S-400 systems (RBC-Ukraine, citing Radio Svoboda)
- Russia pulled back from the Arctic, for now. NATO must act before those troops return (opinion)
