Russia has redeployed air defense systems from the Arctic Circle to elsewhere in the country amid intensified Ukrainian strikes. Radio Liberty, in its Tuesday report, noted that many of the air defense systems near strategic sites in Russia’s far north previously seen in satellite images are no longer visible, leaving empty patches of land.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Examples include the Rogachevo air base in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago of Russia’s Arctic region, where equipment seen in a 2015 satellite image is no longer seen in 2026. Another comparison near the Saratov oil refinery showed an abundance of air defense systems in August 2025, where the same patch was largely empty in satellite images from May 2023. In another instance, air defense equipment deployed in Severodvinsk, near the Arctic city of Arkhangelsk, was removed sometime after August 2024. The outlet said at least one of the systems removed from Severodvinsk was traced via the death of Lt. Col. Vladimir Spiridonov, the commander of an S-400 missile system killed in occupied Crimea in April 2024, citing a report by The Barents Observer. The publication added that most of the systems redeployed are S-300 and S-400 air defense missile batteries. While the systems have been a mainstay of Russia’s air defense alongside more advanced systems such as the Pantsir, they also double as ground-to-ground missiles against Ukraine during massive air raids.