A joint investigation by several media institutions from Northern European and Baltic countries has shown that Russia is actively developing military infrastructure near the NATO borders, which could potentially allow the stationing of over 100,000 soldiers in the region.
Journalists from the Swedish broadcaster SVT, together with other media outlets from the region – NRK from Norway, DR from Denmark, and the Estonian editorial office Delfi – have analyzed, based on satellite images, the Russian military infrastructure near the European borders and have found that it is actively developing in several locations.
The images allow the identification of numerous new barracks for thousands of soldiers, ammunition depots, and military equipment parking spots.
In the town of Petsamo, 10 kilometers from the border with Norway, the construction of barracks and the concentration of military equipment can be observed. The same thing is happening in Petrozavodsk, near the border with Finland.
In Sapornoe, near the Finnish border, in Luga, the Pskov area, as well as in Baltisk, from the Kaliningrad region, military equipment is being gathered, reports news.ro.
In Kirilovsk, 70 kilometers from the border with Finland, a new infrastructure complex is being built, and in Kandalaksha, on the White Sea, the existing base is being expanded.
Journalists also spoke with a series of officials from security structures and experts. According to the commander of the Finnish army, Pasi Välimäki, following the expansion of Russian infrastructure at the country’s borders, approximately 80,000 Russian soldiers could appear, compared to the 20,000 that were there before.
The aforementioned base in Petsamo, in the far north, will be able to accommodate, after expansion, up to 17,000 soldiers, instead of 7,000, as it is now.
In total, the new and expanded objectives allow Russia to potentially concentrate up to 115,000 military personnel at the borders with Northern Europe and the Baltic countries.
“This is a threat that we must take seriously… We do not believe that all this is just to make a demonstration. It’s about preparing capabilities to confront NATO in a large-scale conflict, at some point in the future,” considers the head of the Swedish army’s intelligence service, MUST, Thomas Nilsson.
The transfer of forces to these objectives could be carried out after the conclusion of the active phase of the war against Ukraine.