The 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade training camp is located along the Pechenga River, less than an hour’s drive from the Norwegian border.
The fate of the men who a year ago were based near Russia’s peaceful border with Norway and Finland is much worse than previously known, according to the report FOCUS 2023 as the Norwegian intelligence service published on Monday. 1,500 soldiers have been killed, maybe more.
In March 2021, the first order came to load munitions and other equipment onto railway wagons in Loustari and the soldiers were told that they were going to training in southern Russia. Barely a year later, Russia invaded Ukraine – and the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade from the Kola Peninsula rolled into Kharkiv.
Already early in the war, the brigade lost two tactical battalion troops and, according to the Barents Observer, the number of dead is over 600, while other media reports even more casualties
100 tanks destroyed
In addition to the 200th Brigade, the land forces on the Kola Peninsula consist of the 61st Marine Infantry Brigade in Sputnik and the 80th Arctic Motor Rifle Brigade in Alakurtti. The Norwegian intelligence service – which has been monitoring the military ups and downs in the Pechenga region since World War II – writes in its report that approximately three battalion groups, with 3,000 soldiers, were sent to the battlefields. About half of them are lost.
In addition, the Northern Fleet has lost around 100 tanks and armored vehicles, according to the report.
Warns of nuclear escalation
The Norwegian intelligence chief, Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensønes, warns that the current weakening of conventional forces in northern Russia is limited in time.
– Given that Russia can learn from and correct mistakes, the country’s conventional combat capabilities will be strengthened in the long term, he says to the Barents Observer.
At the same time, the loss of life means that nuclear weapons are now more visible in the area.
“A central part of the nuclear power capacity is deployed on the Northern Fleet’s submarines and surface ships. Tactical nuclear weapons pose a particularly serious threat in several operational scenarios that may involve NATO countries,” the Norwegian intelligence service’s annual report states.