The prestigeous and well-trained brigade stationed in Murmansk Oblast has since the wars in Chechnya started sent soldiers to the troubled Russian region. 81 young men from the brigade have lost their lives in the region. The fallen men where honoured in a ceremony held in tbe brigade’s base in the Pechenga rayon, near the border to Norway. The 61st Kirkenes Brigade got its name from the liberation of the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes from Nazi forces in October 1944.