Ukrainian long-range strikes spur mounting concern on Kola Peninsula
“The current situation calls for the utmost vigilance,” Governor Andrei Chibis emphasised as he summoned representatives of the FSB, the Northern Fleet and other law enforcement agencies.
Authorities in the strategically important region in northern Russia are expressing growing concern about potential enemy attacks.
“Threats and risks are mounting — the enemy is increasingly attempting to strike targets within the country,” Governor Chibis said at a meeting with regional security officials on April, 11 2026.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of a number of recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian industrial facilities and military sites. The range and lethality of these attacks are rapidly increasing, and drones and missiles are now regularly striking targets more than 1,000 km from Ukraine.
Several of the attacks have targeted sites in north-west Russia. Over the past three weeks, Ukrainian forces have struck locations in the Leningrad, Vologda, Tver and Arkhangelsk regions.
The head of Roscosmos has confirmed that drones targeted the space centre in Plesetsk, in the Arkhangelsk region.
The Kola Peninsula is one of Russia’s most militarised regions. Along its northern coast are bases for the Northern Fleet’s nuclear submarines, as well as large storage sites for nuclear weapons. The region also hosts significant military infrastructure and airbases, including the Olenya airbase for strategic bombers near Olenegorsk.
The latter is repeatedly being used for Russian strikes against Ukrainian towns and civilian infrastructure.
The scale of military assets on the Kola Peninsula makes the region a key target for Ukrainian forces. On June, 1, 2025, they attacked the Olenya airbase as part of Operation Spiderweb. The region was also targeted repeatedly in 2024 and 2025. In December 2024, a drone is believed to have struck the Northern Fleet headquarters city of Severomorsk.
The Murmansk region is also home to major industrial plants, several of which could be potential targets.
According to Governor Chibis, he visited key strategic sites in the region this week together with Andrei Pototsky, head of the FSB in the Murmansk region. The two men paid particular attention to emergency response at energy facilities, as well as firefighting and rescue operations, the governor said on social media.
Governor Chibis is a staunch supporter of the war against Ukraine. He has frequently appeared in public wearing clothing marked with the “Z”, a symbol associated with the invasion.
Thousands of soldiers from the Kola Peninsula are fighting on occupied Ukrainian territory. Many hundreds of them have been killed.
