Russia removes missiles from disputed islands with Japan - Kyodo

There is a strong possibility that Moscow is transporting weapons from its Far East for use in the war against Ukraine. This is reported by Kyodo News.

It is reported that Yu Koizumi, a lecturer at the University of Tokyo, conducted the analysis based on satellite images of the Iturup and Kunashiri islands taken by the US company Maxar Technologies Inc.

The missile units, equipped with S-300V4 surface-to-air missile systems, were deployed in Hitokappu Bay in Iturupu, known as Kasatka Bay in Russia, and near Kunashiri's central settlement of Furukamappu, known as Yuzhno-Kurilsk in Russia, the publication reported.

Koizumi said it was possible that they may well have been moved to the western region of Russia near the border with Ukraine.

He also suggests that a large number of old tanks and howitzers from a military facility in southern Sakhalin were sent to Ukraine after being temporarily sent to factories for repair.

Koizumi said Russia's elite Marine Brigade, based in Vladivostok, had suffered significant battle losses and that some residents of the Iturup and Kunashiri islands had died after mobilisation.

The publication writes that "Iturup and Kunashiri are among four disputed islands that Japan calls the Northern Territories and are administered by Russia, which calls them the Southern Kurils."