Why is Putin massing troops on the border of Finland? Military build-up similar to the prelude to Ukraine war sparks alarm in NATO

Satellite images have revealed how Moscow is bulking up its military presence on the Finnish border – in a chilling echo of pictures taken of Russian bases before Putin launched his war in Ukraine.

Moscow is building troop accommodation, aircraft deployment infrastructure and refurbishing old facilities at key military bases, analysts have said, in a sign it is seeking to reinforce its capabilities in the border region.

The pictures, which were obtained by Swedish broadcaster SVT from Planet Labs, suggest there has been activity at four locations inside Russia –  Kamenka, Petrozavodsk, Severomorsk-2, and Olenya.

In Kamenka, which is around 35 miles from the Finnish border and was previously undeveloped, more than 130 military tents capable of housing some 2,000 troops are said to have been set up since February.

Kremlin officials hit back at Finland and Sweden’s recent accession to NATO at the time with a vague threat of ‘military-technical response measures’ – which now appear to be well underway.

‘When we applied for NATO membership, Russia said it would take such steps. We are now seeing that happen,’ Sweden’s Chief of Defence Michael Claesson said.

In November 2021, US officials expressed concern over satellite images showing Russian troops massing on the border with Ukraine – a claim the Kremlin dismissed as unfounded. Less than four months later, Putin launched his full-scale war on Ukraine. 

Moscow has accused NATO of acting as an aggressor rather than a defensive alliance, and has repeatedly vowed to defend itself by any means, using GPS jamming and other methods.

Finland’s accession to NATO on April 4, 2023, which extended the alliance’s border with Russia by over 800 miles, provoked fury in Moscow, with Putin’s cronies warning that the use of nuclear weapons would not be off the table if conflict were to arise.

Seemingly in response to the NATO expansion, Moscow now appears to have been preparing itself for war by ordering the rapid development of facilities on its northwestern border.

‘This is a sign of increasing activity,’ Finnish military analyst Emil Kastehelmi, who is following the developments, told SVT.

In Petrozavodsk, around 100 miles from the Finnish border, three large warehouses have been built which experts suggest are storage halls for armoured vehicles.

The existing halls would be able to fit around 50, with another under construction, according to the latest images from late April. 

Pictures from the far north appear to show that the previously closed Severomorsk-2 airbase is now operating, with refurbishment works seemingly completed in recent years. 

Several helicopters are seen parked in bays off the runway, which is situated 110 miles from the Finnish border and less than 70 miles from Norway. 

Meanwhile in Olenya, around 90 miles from Finland, the airbase is said to be fully active, with Russian bombers stationed there carrying out raids on targets in Ukraine, according to Kyiv.

Last month, Finland’s Deputy Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen expressed concerns over Russia’s actions on the border, stating that the Kremlin is ‘deliberately testing NATO’s unity’ to see if it will trigger Article 5 – the alliance’s collective defence clause.

Speaking to German newspaper Welt, Virtanen said Russia has been testing Article 5 with hybrid war tactics including cyberattacks and mass cross-border migration, and is now erecting new equipment to station Russian troops along its border.

‘During the war there were about 20,000 soldiers stationed and about four standby brigades, now we see that Russia is building new infrastructure and as soon as they can, more troops in this region,’ Virtanen warned.

The army chief explained that they are reorganising themselves from the brigades and there would likely be around four to five divisions, an army corps, and a supporting unit.

‘So there will be more troops there in the future than before the Ukraine war,’ he added, while reassuring that Finland has been ready to defend its allies for decades.

In response to Finland’s NATO membership, Putin announced the establishment of the ‘Leningrad Military District’ near the Finnish border and the deployment of additional military units to the area.

But the Russian dictator has repeatedly dismissed concerns over a potential attack on NATO members as ‘complete nonsense’, asserting that Russia has no interest in engaging in conflict with the alliance.

When Washington highlighted a military build-up across Ukraine’s border in 2021, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphatically dismissed the reports, saying there was no need to ‘waste time’ on ‘low-quality’ claims.

‘The movement of our military equipment and army units… is exclusively our business,’ he told reporters at the time. ‘Russia has never threatened anyone.’

Last month, former Russian president warned that NATO’s newest members are now potential targets of nuclear revenge if Moscow so chooses.

Dmitry Medvedev, who has styled himself as one of Russia’s most outspoken anti-Western hawks, appeared to be referring to Sweden and Finland, the last two countries to join the Western military alliance.

If conflict were to arise, nuclear weapons would not be off the table, the TASS state news agency reported.

‘The non-aligned status gave them [Finland and Sweden] certain international perks, given their geopolitical position and many other factors,’ Medvedev said.

‘And now they are part of a bloc hostile to us which means they automatically became a target for our armed forces, including potential retaliatory strikes and even the nuclear component or preventive measures within the framework of a military doctrine.’

Last week, Moscow also warned Britain against deploying a ‘coalition of the willing’ in Ukraine, declaring it could lead to a nuclear World War Three.

Putin crony Sergei Shoigu, secretary of the powerful Russian security council and ex-defence minister, said Russia rejected Western boots on the ground in the war-torn country.

He similarly warned of the Kremlin’s readiness to both use nuclear weapons and restart atomic weapon tests in the Arctic for the first time since the Cold War, claiming Europe is secretly preparing for war against Russia by 2030.

‘Sensible politicians in Europe understand that the implementation of such a scenario [putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine] could lead to a direct clash between NATO and Russia and subsequently to World War Three,’ he told state news agency TASS.

It was ‘more correct’ to call such British and EU forces ‘a contingent interventionists or occupiers’, said Shoigu, referring to Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘coalition of the willing’.

‘Where will these ‘peacekeepers’ come from?

‘They will be units of the same NATO countries, against the presence of which Russia opposed even before the [war], which began largely because of this threat – the deployment of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine, on our historical territory.’