According to the researcher, one regiment’s or two battalions’ worth of personnel, 2,000 soldiers at most, has remained in the Pskov Airborne Division, which is the closest to Estonia. Before February 24, the division’ strength was about 7,000 soldiers.
“We also know that in recent years, Russia established a helicopter base in the Pskov region, quite close to the southeastern corner of Estonia, along the border with Latvia, where there were both attack and transport helicopters. Apparently, these helicopters have also largely found use in Ukraine,” said the researcher.
Stoicescu stated that Russia is trying to hide the real state of its troops and is also trying to show activity on the country's western borders. This category includes the recent announcement about exercises lasting almost half a year, until May, at a training ground near Pskov. The researcher considers this very strange, and the logical explanation for this would be that Russia is trying to demonstrate its still high military capability near NATO's borders.
"We all can see and know that this is not really the case. Russia's decision to move 11 Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers to North Karelia near the border of Finland and Norway belongs to the same category. With this, they are again trying to show some kind of strategic military activity. Perhaps they want to simulate combat readiness near the NATO borders. We all know that they are taking heavy losses in Ukraine, and the general condition of Russia's personnel, military equipment, supplies and everything else is not improving, but deteriorating every day," Stoicescu said.