The land forces on Kola are reduced to a fifth of their original numbers before the invasion of Ukraine. The head of the Intelligence Service of Norway, Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensønes, said this in a comment to the Barents Observer.
According to him, one of the consequences of this could be lowering the threshold for nuclear escalation by Russia, particularly near Norway.
According to Norwegian intelligence, The men with the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade had their training camps along the Pechenga River; at 19 km, in Loustari and in the village of Pechenga. All are less than an hour’s drive from the border with Norway.
The brigade took part in the invasion on February 24 and headed towards Kharkiv. At the initial stage of the war, the 200th Infantry Brigade from the Kola Peninsula lost two battalion tactical groups. The Barents Observer reported 645 deaths in the first month, while other media indicated that there were more.
Even before the beginning of the school year last fall, the authorities of the Murmansk region introduced free meals for schoolchildren whose parents were killed or wounded in Ukraine. At that time, 1,274 children were affected by the program, which is a serious indication of the wave of deaths among military parents.
Norwegian intelligence believes that about three battalion groups of 3,000 people were sent to Ukraine, and almost half of them died. In addition, the Northern Fleet lost up to 100 tanks and armored vehicles.
In the summer and fall of 2022, the 200th motorized rifle brigade received new soldiers to be sent to war. Some of them were volunteers, some were veterans, and some were mobilized.
The vast majority of recruits had limited military service experience, and training on the Kola Peninsula lasted only a few weeks.
In addition to the 200th Infantry Brigade, the ground forces of the Russian Federation on the Kola Peninsula consist of the 61st Separate Marine Brigade in Sputnik and the 80th Arctic Motorized Rifle Brigade in Alakurtti.
