Translated material
Air defense instead of nature. Why are trees cut down in Moskvoretsky Park?
In May 2026, residents of the Moscow Kuntsevo district protested against the cutting down of trees in Moskvoretsky Park, which has been given the status of a specially protected natural area since 1998. Radio Liberty found out that a new position for S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems will probably appear there. Earlier, after the start of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, three such air defense sites had already been built in the Russian capital. Almost all of them are located in environmental protection zones.
“A military facility is being built, what else do you need to explain? - Where is the information about this, that a military facility is being built? - Take everyone to the police, explain to them there. Everyone, leave!”
Such a dialogue took place on May 25 between the prefect of the Western Administrative District of Moscow , Alexei Alexandrov , and residents of the Kuntsevo district, who came out to protest against the cutting down of trees in Moskvoretsky Park. Work on the park began in mid-June. By June 21, as follows from satellite images studied by Radio Liberty, a rectangular area measuring 290 by 150 meters had already been cut down in the forest. The nearest residential buildings are approximately 800 meters away; a clearing was cut to allow access for construction equipment to the work site.
Residents of the Kuntsevo district appealed to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin with a request to stop work in the green zone: “When we, the residents, came here and asked to explain what was happening and to show us the project, they refused to show us the project. No one enters into negotiations with us, no one explains anything to us. They just cut down and heavy equipment is moving. Sergei Semenovich, please stop cutting down our forest,” the appeal said.
“There are no documents. That is, some supposed representative of the contractor came and said that this is a Ministry of Defense facility. The prefect repeated him. But Putin promised us that he would not raise the retirement age, you know? How can we trust them? We cannot trust them absolutely. We don’t know what will really happen there. Maybe a Ministry of Defense facility, maybe air defense, maybe not, maybe commercial development, as was previously carried out in Moskvoretsky Park,” he said then in an interview with the TV channel Present Time Moscow City Duma deputy Evgeny Stupin .
One of Stupin’s versions turned out to be correct: most likely, in the Moskvoretsky park, which for almost 30 years has had the status of a “specially protected natural area of regional significance,” a site is being built to house the S-300/400 anti-aircraft missile systems. Radio Liberty found this out by comparing the construction parameters with other similar sites built in the Russian capital after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the first attacks of Ukrainian drones on Moscow.
The territory of the Moskvoretsky park near the Kuntsevo district: comparison of satellite images for June 5, 2026 and August 16, 2022.
Construction of positions for the S-300/400 air defense system in the Moskvoretsky park
A total of three such sites have been built since the beginning of the war, as follows from the map of the location of air defense systems in Moscow and the Moscow region, which Radio Liberty has been maintaining since 2023. The first of them appeared in January 2023 in the north of the capital on the former experimental fields of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. This land had previously also become a point of contention: the academy staff fought with the Russian government, which for many years tried to take them away for housing construction. The issue was even brought up to Putin’s “direct line” in 2016, when he ordered to “leave Timiryazevka alone.”
Now the S-300/400 position near the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, including missile launchers, can be seen both on publicly available Yandex satellite images and on photographs from the Yandex.Panorama service.
The area of territory cleared here for anti-aircraft missile systems exactly coincides with the area of deforestation in Moskvoretsky Park and is approximately 4.5 hectares.
Another similar air defense site appeared in the same January 2023 between Sokolniki and Losiny Ostrov parks. Environmentalists also unsuccessfully opposed this construction. On December 31, 2022, New Year's Eve, an area measuring 200 by 350 meters was fenced and paved. Local residents began to protest, but they were urgently and convincingly asked to forget about this deforestation, one of the environmental activists who participated in the protests, who asked for anonymity, told Radio Liberty at the time.
Now this air defense site is also clearly visible on Yandex panoramas and satellite images. The military facility is surrounded by a massive fence with barbed wire. In the satellite photo you can see the same launchers and other elements of the S-400 air defense system, including two concrete “podiums”, the same as those already built in the Moskvoretsky park in Kuntsevo.
The area cleared for air defense in this place is the same 4.5 hectares as in Kuntsevo or on the former fields of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy.
Finally, the fourth site for the S-300/400 air defense system was built in the Moscow Izmailovsky Park, which also has the status of a specially protected natural area. Despite the fact that the location of the launchers and other equipment at this location is the same as at the sites in Losiny Ostrov Park and in the Timiryazevsky District, the shape of the facility is different. It was built later, in the spring of 2025, and there was no need to cut down the forest for this: previously there was a nursery of ornamental plants and flowers “Moscow” here. It closed in May 2023, and the area was empty for two years.
Comparison of satellite images of the former territory of the Moscow garden center in Izmailovsky Park: August 6, 2022 and June 20, 2026:
Due to the fact that this facility was not built from scratch, its area differs from similar air defense positions in Losiny Ostrov Park and in the Timiryazevsky District and is only 3.6 hectares.
Back in May 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defense initiated a bill allowing the military to cut down forests belonging to them (controlled by specialized military forestries) without approval. It was never adopted, but in any case, Izmailovsky Park or Losiny Island formally has nothing to do with the army and, according to the law, such objects should not be located there.
On the roof of your house
The Russian Ministry of Defense made its main bet in protecting Moscow from attacks by Ukrainian drones not on the S-300/400, which are more suitable for intercepting cruise and ballistic missiles, but on the more mobile Pantsir short-range anti-aircraft missile systems, surrounding Moscow with hundreds of towers with these installations.
In mid-June, such a tower was installed next to the Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya, although they did not have time to equip it with the “Pantsir” itself in time for the first Ukrainian attack on this facility, which occurred on June 16. During the second strike on the refinery, on June 18, a real air battle unfolded in the skies over Kapotnya, during which numerous eyewitness videos captured both Pantsirs’ misses and missiles hitting drones.
According to the Ukrainian telegram channel Machinery Info , the Central Military District of the Russian Ministry of Defense recently received new anti-aircraft missiles for combating drones - TKB-1055, and also "lightweight" Pantsir installations with the index "SMD-E" were supplied to the army specifically for them. In June, several of these anti-aircraft missile systems were hoisted by helicopter directly onto the roofs of skyscrapers in the center of Moscow - on Begovaya Street and near the Sokolniki metro station. In district and house chats, this caused a storm of indignation among residents, who suggested that military equipment on the roofs of houses could become the target of another Ukrainian strike.
1/4 That's what my Moscow air defense map looked like 3 years ago :) Now we're back to %27Pantsirs%27 being installed on rooftops in the very center of the city! https://t.co/iGZvXKyjMd pic.twitter.com/MtZq70xNU0
— Mark Krutov (@kromark) May 28, 2026
In total, on the interactive map of air defense systems built after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Moscow and the Moscow region, which is maintained by Radio Liberty, there are now more than 100 Pantsir and other air defense systems surrounding the capital in several rings. They do not cope very well with protection from Ukrainian attacks, including, according to one version, due to a shortage of missiles. The Russian military also has interceptor drones, the use of which against Russian Geraniums has long been mastered and scaled up by Ukraine, but for now they are used mainly near the front line.
In terms of the number of air defense systems per square kilometer, Moscow is far from being the leader: it is overtaken by Vladimir Putin’s residence on Lake Valdai, where their mother Alina Kabaeva often visits his sons. There are already almost 30 “Pantsir” and other air defense systems around Putin’s Valdai residence, despite the fact that the population and area of this area are several times smaller than the territory and number of residents of Moscow and the Moscow region.
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