Russia has diverted 80% of its troops from western borders to Ukraine amid war: Report

Since the onset of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Moscow has been redirecting its military forces away from the bases in Northern Europe to overcome logistical challenges being faced by the Russian forces in its war against Ukraine. According to a report by Foreign Policy, Russian forces continue to suffer high losses and setbacks on the battlefield against Ukrainian troops.  

The report states that 80% of the Russian troops from an original estimate of 30,000 soldiers that faced the Baltic countries and southern Finland, have been diverted to Ukraine, stated three senior European defence officials to the Foreign Policy. The report further claimed that earlier, the abovementioned deployment of the Russian troops formed one of the densest concentration of its military force facing the NATO territory.  

Status of Russia’s forces facing the Baltic region  

Speaking to the Foreign Policy on the condition of anonymity, one senior Nordic defence official stated, “The drawdown we’ve seen from this region in the past seven months is very significant. Russia had this ground force posture facing us for decades that is now effectively just gone.”  

However, the official stated that Russia’s air power in the region hadn’t deteriorated. Moreover, Russia’s Northern Fleet—the crown jewel of its naval power, has remained relatively untouched, claimed the Nordic defence official.   

According to satellite imagery obtained by a Finnish media outlet, Yle, Russia appeared to withdraw some S-300 anti aircraft systems from a protective ring around St. Petersburg, a Russian city that is near Finland’s border. Furthermore, according to the satellite imagery, a missile basing area in the region, operated by the Russian military’s 500th Antiaircraft Missile Regiment, appeared to be abandoned entirely.  

Lithuania’s Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas spoke about the apparent reasons behind Russia’s decision. “The reasons are twofold and pretty simple. These forces were used to generate sufficient combat power for the initial invasion in February. As Russian forces were sustaining heavy losses in theatre, they had to be replaced (and) restored during the fight," he said as per Foreign Policy.  

Russia-Ukraine conflict changing the military map of Europe  

According to the report published by Foreign Policy, the war between Russia and Ukraine and Russia’s subsequent losses on the battlefield are altering the military map of Europe. As Sweden and Finland stand ready to join NATO, defence officials across the Baltic region are forced to question when, and how would Moscow reconstitute its armed forces to cover NATO’s northeastern flank. Slovakia is the most recent addition to NATO as it became the 28th NATO member on Tuesday.  

Russia’s redeployment of its forces in Ukraine  

A significant number of the Russian forces that were called back from the Northern Europe region are reportedly part of Russia’s 6th Army. The 6th Army had been responsible for fighting in the Kharkiv Oblast region of Ukraine, which has since been retaken by Ukraine through a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive. The 6th Army is typically assigned with defending Russia’s border along the Baltic States and Finland, stated the report.  

Meanwhile, the Defence Minister of Lithuania stated that a small number of Russian units from the Kaliningrad Oblast region, a small Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, had also been deployed to Ukraine. Before the war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia had around 12,000 ground and airborne troops in Kaliningrad and 18,000 ground and airborne troops, along with hundreds of tanks and other heavy military vehicles, in the western portion of the country near the Baltic and Finnish borders, according to an assessment from the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service available on the public domain.