Moscow likely deployed them close to the Ukrainian border.

Data from Japanese satellite images shows that Russia has relocated several air defense missile systems it deployed on two contested islands near northern Japan in 2020. This development raises the possibility that Moscow may be repurposing these weapons, originally stationed in its Far East, for use in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

This conclusion was published by Japan’s largest newspaper The Mainichi, which cited analysis by Yu Koizumi, a lecturer at the University of Tokyo, who based his findings on satellite imagery of the Etorofu and Kunashiri islands, obtained from the U.S. space technology company Maxar Technologies Inc. 

Koizumi also expressed confidence that Russia was transferring aged tanks and artillery previously stored at a military facility in Sakhalin to the frontlines in Ukraine – they have disappeared too.

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The missile units, armed with S-300V4 surface-to-air missile systems, were previously positioned in Hitokappu Bay on Etorofu, known as Kasatka Bay in Russia, and in the vicinity of Furukamappu, the central settlement on Kunashiri, referred to as Yuzhno-Kurilsk in Russia. 

Between mid and late September of the preceding year, various transporter erector launchers carrying S-300V4 missiles, radar systems, and additional equipment were discernible at both military installations.

Koizumi speculated that these units might have been relocated to Russia's western region, near the Ukrainian border, in anticipation of a potential offensive.

Furthermore, he suggested that a substantial quantity of outdated tanks and howitzers, previously housed in southern Sakhalin, may have been transported to Ukraine after undergoing temporary repairs at local factories.

A map of the Kuril Islands. Credit: Australian National University

In addition to these equipment movements, troops from Russia's Far East are also being dispatched to Ukraine. An elite naval infantry brigade based in Vladivostok has suffered significant casualties in combat, and some residents of the Etorofu and Kunashiri islands have lost their lives following their mobilization, the report claims.

"The Russian military is deploying all available resources, a clear indication of their active involvement in the ongoing conflict," Koizumi was quoted as saying.

The Japanese military have not commented on the report.

Etorofu and Kunashiri are two of the seven disputed islands known as the Northern Territories, which Japan claims as its own while Russia administers them as the Southern Kurils. Russia’s predecessor – the Soviet Union – annexed the islands (four largest are Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, Khabomai) from Japan in 1945.