Russian anti-aircraft missile systems disappear from the Kuril Islands

Previously, S-300V4 surface-to-air missile systems were deployed on the islands of Etorofu and Kunashiri, near the Japanese island of Hokkaido, Kyodo News reports.

The new satellite images do not show them. The SAMs had been there since 2020. 

It is likely that Russia has moved these systems to its western territories near Ukraine.

University of Tokyo professor Yu Koizumi is convinced that the S-300V4s were moved to western Russia to be used in the war against Ukraine.

Yu also stresses that the Russians are sending refurbished old tanks and self-propelled artillery systems, which were previously stored at a military facility in southern Sakhalin, to the frontline in Ukraine and are also deploying military units and mobilised men from the Far East.

In his words, the elite marine brigade based in Vladivostok has suffered significant losses in combat in Ukraine, and some residents of the Etorofu and Kunashiri islands have died after being mobilized.