Petsamodalen, a little over a mile from the Norwegian border, is closed to foreigners, because the FSB intelligence service rarely gives permission. We have to make do with making the trip on Google Maps because the region is a military protection area. To find out secrets, like a spy. < route >https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!4v1775046585991!6m8!1m7!1smMd3sNUGMw2nrDioyB9N6g!2m2!1d69.5138323325079!2d31.14953957235251!3f271.2358769133424!4f1.6773144197307914!5f1.1924812503605782
Empty barracks along the E105. Not many soldiers are visible in Streetview from August 2021. A little later, they were loaded with their vehicles onto trains to Belarus.
It takes an hour to drive the sixty kilometers from Kirkenes to reach Zapolyarnyj via the Storskog border station. A dirty mining town, where Norwegians liked to shop before the border was closed. East of the town lies an Arctic desert. The nickel mine and smelter have acidified the soil and killed the forest. The same as in the town of Nikel two kilometers west on the Norwegian border.
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During the Finnish period from 1920 to 1944, Nikel was the world’s largest nickel mine. The alloy is needed to produce armor steel. This was the main reason why the Soviets annexed Petsamo after the Winter War, or Pechenga as it is now known.
Fierce battles were fought along the Petsamo River between Russian and Finnish/German troops in 1941-1944.
Tanks around a monastery in Luostari
After about a mile on the E105 turn right. With Petsamos timbered monastery, founded around 1600 to save the Sami people to Greek Orthodox doctrine. Or to save Kola to the Russian Empire.
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Just south of the monastery lies the southern part of the 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade’s barracks. The long tank stables have an explanation, the training field next to the airport. Here in the Petsamo Valley, in addition to air defense, there were previously about fifty T-80 tanks and more than 300 armored tracked vehicles.
Not many soldiers and armored vehicles are visible on the Google map from August 2021. The Petsamo brigade was loaded onto the Luostari railway for “maneuver” in Belarus. It was in May 2021, barely a year before the attack in Ukraine – with the massacre in Butja among other things. Half of the three thousand in the elite unit did not survive the first year. Today, only remnants remain, with disciplinary problems.
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Ghost town
The Korzunovo/Luotsari airfield has been closed since 2019. It can function as a helicopter base in the same way as before. On the other side of the railway, dilapidated houses are visible, some as ruins.
Attempts are being made to renovate the ghost town. Just north of the airfield, the 14th Army Division stores armored vehicles and artillery, common to the ground forces in the region.< GMap > < Str.view >
The straight stretches of the E105 are reinforced and widened, probably to accommodate runways. It could also be to resist damage from the permafrost.
Monastery
Take the E105 east towards Luostari. The first camp is in Luostari, one kilometer north of the old airfield. It is located right next to the Petsamo Monastery, built in the 16th century to Christianize the Sami in the Greek Orthodox faith.
The Petjenga Valley is a military protected area, so a tourist will have to make do with StreetView in Google Maps from 2021. The map shows lots of tanks in Luotsari next to the training ground and barracks,
They are no longer there because already in 2021 the 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade was driven with tanks to Belarus. The brigade suffered heavy losses in Ukraine, around half of the approximately 3,000 soldiers in three battalion groups died. 100 tanks were lost.
Just after the airport we see the garrisons at Luostari, which was the main station of the 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade. What remains after heavy losses in Ukraine has been renamed the 71st Guards Motorized Rifle Division . It is an important place for logistics as the road and railway to Pechenga pass here. The elite unit is trained for Arctic warfare and has bases along the river up to Pechenga.
The next addition to the force is a little over a mile north, at Peshenga with barracks and stores a kilometer along the E105. Here and there you can see the armored vehicles, although most of them have been sent to Ukraine. The same applies to the personnel. However, new garrisons are being built and modernized to accommodate 4 thousand from 3 thousand before the war.
After Peshenga, make a detour half a mile east to Sputnik. https://maps.app.goo.gl/7FET9sWhktYiBukR8 .
E105
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After a little over a mile on the E105 , the 61st Marine Infantry Brigade ’s central facility appears . With barracks, stores and tank stables a whole kilometer along the road. Streetview from August 2021 shows a surprisingly large number of vehicles and tanks considering that 2,000 soldiers were driven to Belarus in May 2022. Most of the barracks appear to be in good condition.
/ By Ingemar Lindmark