Yan Petrovsky was a mercenary in Donbas, fighting for pro-Russian forces.

29-year-old Yan Petrovsky, a militant from Rusich battalion of pro-Russian forces, detained in Norway – reports NRK. Police established that he has ties with far-right movement in the country. Petrovsky has lived in Norway since 2004 after Russia annexed Crimea and started the turmoil in Donbas, Petrovsky went to take part in military actions.

He boasted about his military experience in social media. On one of the photos, he poses near a burning body of a Ukrainian soldier.

The mercenary was detained according to the immigration law. He is accused of violating it by staying for too long outside the country.

Petrovsky is also considered a threat to Norway state. Now the court decides whether Petrovsky will be deported from Norway.

(uatoday)

TANKS, artillery and gear for 15,000 US Marines is being hidden in secret cave systems on the border with Russia, it can be revealed.

Thousands of pieces of military gear is sitting ready beneath Norway stashed away in classified climate controlled caves knocking on the front door of Vladimir Putin.

US Marine Corps this week announced they were planning on stationing 300 troopers to the Scandinavian country as relations plunge between Washington and Moscow.

Battle-ready soldiers will join the host of US military gear – enough to fully arm a force of 15,000 – sitting on the border between NATO and Russia.

Gigantic cave facilities beneath Norway are relics of the Cold War, and were earlier this year packed with new equipment amid a gigantic NATO drill dubbed Cold Response.

Six of the secret tunnel networks exist scattered throughout central Norway.

The nation shares a 122 mile long border with Russia and was a massively militarised frontier when the US feuded with the Soviet Union.

Major General Niel E. Nelson, commander of US Marine Corps Forces Europe, said the new plan for deployment would see American forces on a “limited rotational presence”.

He added: “If approved by the Norwegian government, a Marine Corps presence in Norway will increase NATO’s ability to rapidly aggregate and employ forces in northern Europe.”

Earlier this year, the Marines announce they were restocking them as tensions flared between Russia and NATO over the annexation of Crimea.

At the time, Colonel William Bentley said: “Any gear that is forward-deployed both reduces cost and speeds up our ability to support operations in crisis, so we’re able to fall in on gear that is ready-to-go and respond to whatever that crisis may be.”

Relations have continued to worsen as Russia and the US reach conflict risk levels “more dangerous” than the Cold War as politicians warn the civil war in Syria could erupt into “global war”.

Norway’s Chief of Defence, Admiral Haakon Bruun Hanssen previously warned Russia has shown “they are willing to use military force to achieve political ambitions”.

Russia’s mighty Northern Fleet has been on the move this week as the a flotilla cruises down the coast of Norway bound for Britain.

The Royal Navy remains on high alert, but Moscow military experts mocked the Brit fleet as “weak and “tiny”.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/555170/Russia-War-Threat-US-Marine-Corps-Norway-Secret-Caves-Tanks-Artillery-World-War-3

Udaloy I class anti-submarine destroyer

The Norwegian military said Tuesday it had taken photos of a Russian fleet, including its flagship aircraft carrier, which were shadowed off its coast as they headed for the eastern Mediterranean.

Based in Severomorsk in the Barents Sea in the Arctic, the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and seven other vessels were photographed on Monday in international waters off Norway, Major Elisabeth Eikeland, spokeswoman of the National Joint Headquarters in the Norwegian army, told AFP.

“We have been informed that they are en route to the Mediterranean,” Eikeland said.

“It’s not every day that so many ships sail together off Norway,” she said.

The carrier was shadowed by a Norwegian navy frigate, with a vessel from another NATO member primed to take over escort duties afterwards, Eikeland said.

“The tone is good” with the Russian ships, Eikeland said.

Russia announced on Saturday that the Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov, its only aircraft carrier, was to reinforce Moscow’s military presence in the eastern Mediterranean, where its forces are conducting a bombing campaign in Syria.

The Admiral Kuznetsov is traveling with the Pyotr Veliky battlecruiser, the Vice Admiral Kulakov destroyer and large anti-submarine ships, the defence ministry in Moscow said.

On Tuesday, Moscow announced an immediate halt to raids by Russian and Syrian air forces on Aleppo as a gesture of “goodwill”.

The Kremlin said this would enable the evacuation of civilians from rebel-held areas of the city, which has been bombed intensively during the past month.

(defence talk)

The Ministries of Defense of the United States and Norway are discussing the possibility of deploying U.S. forces in Scandinavian countries bordering the Russian Federation, Deutsche Welle reported.

“The capacities for additional drills, stocks and such sort of things are evaluated in the Armed Forces,” the Ministry of Defense of Norway noted, adding that it was a long-standing wish of the United States. It is reported that the Pentagon wants to deploy 300 U.S. marines near Vaernes in Trondheim. This part of the border between Norway and Russia is about 200 kilometers long and located approximately 1,000 kilometers from the Arctic Circle.

The Ministry noted that military units can be deployed on a rotational basis, thus avoiding issues of permanent relocation. The plan is still at in the early stages of development and was discussed at the departmental level but not at a political level.

Earlier, the Norwegian authorities declared the start of modernization of the Army for protection against Russia. U.S. intelligence confirmed the reports of Estonian media that Russia has deployed Iskander missile system units within a 500-kilometer radius of Kaliningrad region between Poland and Lithuania and suggested that these are drills and political gestures of displeasure towards the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“These units of missile forces were repeatedly deployed to the Kaliningrad region and will be deployed within combat training of the Armed Forces,” the official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, commented on the situation. That evening, Estonia and Finland accused Russian military aircraft of new violations of their air space.

The Iskander missile system began to enter into service in 2016. Each system is equipped with two high-speed missiles designed for destruction of ground targets at a distance of up to 500 kilometers.

(uawire)

Two Russian TU-160 bombers were intercepted by NATO fighter planes as they flew from Norway to northern Spain and back, BBC reports.

Air Force fighter jets from Norway, Great Britain, France and Spain took into the air as Russian aircraft approached the borders of each country.

The incident reportedly took place on September 22, but details only emerged recently, after a statement by the French Ministry of Defense, who called it an air policing mission.

The statement states that Norway first detected the two bombers (NATO classification Blackjack) near the northern borders of the country. Two F-16 fighters scrambled to intercept the Russian jets near northern Scotland.

Then, Great Britain sent Typhoon aircraft from the Royal Air Force base Lossiemouth as the Russian planes flew to the west of Shetland Islands. As reported by the British Air Force, the Russian jets did not enter British air space.

After that, the Russian bombers skirted the west coast of Ireland and then were intercepted by two French Rafale fighters 100 kilometers from the Brittany coast. As reported by the French Ministry of Defense, two other Rafale jets assisted the interception as the Russian TU-160s moved towards the south.

Finally, Spain sent two F-18 fighters to intercept the TU-160 planes north of Bilbao. After that, the Russian jets turned and flew back. It is believed that they were not intercepted on the way back.

Russia later received a complaint from Iceland that the TU-160 Blackjack bombers had flown too close to civil airliners on the same day. According to the Foreign Ministry of Iceland, the bombers flew between 1,800 and 2,700 meters below a plane flying from Reykjavik to Stockholm. The Russian Ministry of Defense responded to the statements from the Foreign Ministry of Iceland by saying they were a “figment of their imagination.”

For Great Britain, this incident is just the latest in a series of similar events involving Russian military aircraft. According to Spanish media, the jet was farther south than an interception of foreign aircraft has ever been conducted.

Flights of Russian military aircraft near the borders of European countries have become frequent against the backdrop of cooling relations between Russia and the West. Recently this tension has increased since the United States stopped military cooperation with Russia in Syria.

(uawire)