Helicopters, a new tent camp and in the far north - strategic bombers used against Ukraine. New satellite images show signs of a growing Russian military presence near the border with Finland, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reports, BTA reports.
“We have very good monitoring of what is happening“, says Swedish Defense Minister Mikael Claesson.
After Sweden and Finland joined NATO, Russian officials issued veiled threats of “military-technical countermeasures“. Although such actions did not happen immediately - the focus was on the war in Ukraine - new satellite images show the first real signs of activity near the Finnish border.
Increased activity and construction of new facilities
Photos provided to SVT by Planet Labs PBC reveal increased construction at various military sites. In Petrozavodsk, 175 km east of the Finnish border, three storage halls have been built, each with a capacity of up to 50 armored vehicles. A fourth warehouse is under construction (photo from April 27, 2025).
Finnish military analyst Emil Kastehelmi notes that this may be an attempt to conceal the exact number of deployed equipment.
A tent camp with a capacity for several thousand soldiers has been erected in Kamenka. In addition, the abandoned Severomorsk-2 air base is being renovated, where helicopters have already been spotted - just 180 km from the Finnish and 110 km from the Norwegian borders.
Bombers and increased pressure in the far north
The Olenya base in the Arctic part of Russia is particularly active, from where, according to Ukrainian sources, strategic bombers take off to strike Ukrainian targets.
The response of Sweden and NATO
The Swedish armed forces are monitoring the situation closely. A Swedish military contingent is expected to be deployed to the new NATO command headquarters in Lapland, Finland, in the summer.
Minister Claesson believes that Russia's actions are directly related to the Scandinavian countries' accession to NATO:
“The Russians have announced that they will take military-technical measures, and now we are seeing these measures in practice. They are strengthening their military presence and expanding their capabilities in our neighborhood.“