Putin is building new force to take on NATO – by Iona Cleave for the Telegraph – 24.05.25
Michael Julien- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
The Kremlin is expanding military recruitment, increasing weapons production
and upgrading infrastructure along Russia’s northern borders
Russia is building bases and expanding its military footprint near the Finnish
border, in a sign of where its swollen army could be moved after a ceasefire in
Ukraine.
New satellite imagery has revealed columns of new troop tents, expanding
military bases and renovated Arctic airfields, all opposite Nato’s northeastern
flank in what could be a harbinger of a future war.
The signals are elsewhere too. The Kremlin is expanding military recruitment,
increasing weapons production and upgrading logistical infrastructure along
Russia’s borders with Norway, Finland and the Baltics.
Finnish defence officials say the new build-up is small-scale, but is likely being
done in preparation for tens of thousands of troops as well as military assets to
be redeployed to their border and further north to the Arctic.
While not imminent, they told The Telegraph that the threat is very real. The
officials believe they have up to five years until Moscow can beef up its forces
to concerning levels if the full-scale war in Ukraine comes to and end.
“We joined Nato, so we anticipated this,” said Major General Sami Nurmi, chief
of strategy of the Finnish defence forces. The military, he said, is “watching
very closely and preparing accordingly”.
“What we are seeing are the preparations for the future” when Russia will bring
back the forces fighting in Ukraine, he told The Telegraph. “But the troops on
our borders will grow.”
He added: “We do not see any immediate threat towards Finland.”
Donald Trump said the same on Tuesday. Responding to Russia’s military
manoeuvres, the US president claimed he was “not worried at all” and that
Finland and Norway would be “very safe”.
Finland, which was forced to cede territory to the Soviet Union in the Second
World War, spent decades pursuing a policy of neutrality until it decided to join
NATO in 2023 in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The country’s accession to the alliance extended NATO's frontier with Russia by
835 miles, changing the military strategic situation in northern Europe.
Maj Gen Nurmi is clear-eyed, but pragmatic about the new infrastructure and
Russia’s troop movement plans. “We do not want to be too alarmist,” he said.
Watching developments across the border “has been our daily business for
hundreds of years”.
Satellite imagery has revealed that over 130 new troop tents have been erected
in Kamenka, less than 40 miles from Finland and 140 miles from Helsinki. The
base, which was unused before 2022, should now be able to house 2,000 troops.
Russia is also expanding military infrastructure around the city of Petrozavodsk,
100 miles from the borders of Finland and Norway, which could serve as a new
headquarters for Moscow’s north-western troops in a possible conflict with NATO.
The photographs also show intensifying activity at the Soviet-era Arctic air
bases at Severomorsk-2 as well as Olenya, where nuclear-capable Tu-22 and
Tu-95 strategic bombers have been moved. Russian helicopters have also been
spotted in the Arctic city of Murmansk for the first time in two decades.
Russia has been forced to move expensive military assets north to get them out
of the range of Ukraine’s drones, which target air bases across Russia.
But NATO fears that Moscow is expanding its military footprint further and
further north to extend its control over resources in the Arctic region, which is at
the centre of a new geopolitical rivalry.
“The Arctic is the important theatre of the future,” said Maj Gen Nurmi. “This
will not change. We are working very closely with our Arctic allies to assess
Russia’s plans.”
But changes are also happening at an organisational level as the Russian
military restructures itself to face its perceived growing threat of NATO to the
north-west.
Last year, Moscow re-established the huge military district of Leningrad to
increase its military presence next to Finland, Estonia and Latvia. Small
brigades that were stationed there before the Ukraine war, will nearly triple in
size to become divisions of over 10,000 troops.
That process has already started. In Kamenka, where the rows of tents have
been built, the 138th Motor Rifle Brigade there has become the 69th Motor
Rifle division.
“This is a continuation of military plans before 2022 and response to new
geopolitical developments of Sweden and Finland joining Nato,” said Emil
Kastehelmi, an analyst at the Black Bird Group, a Finnish organisation that
tracks Russian military movements.
It is difficult, he said, to interpret Russia’s actions as strictly either defensive or
offensive. “There a multitude of scenarios and uncertainties.”
In February, Danish intelligence warned that Russia could launch a major land
war in Europe within five years if the war freezes in Ukraine. Others have
suggested it would take just two years for Moscow to be ready.
There are other signs that Russia’s military is not preparing for peace. Putin has
ordered his military to increase its ranks to up to 1.5 million troops, up from a
million before the invasion of Ukraine, while its military spending will reach
6pc of GDP this year, while Nato countries on average spend 2.71pc. Tanks are
being built at an increasing rate, but not being sent to Ukraine.
Russia’s hybrid attacks on Finland, like other NATO states, are also increasing,
including GPS jamming along the border, the cutting of undersea cables and
other sabotage attacks inside the country, which are seen as Moscow’s attempt
to destabilise the West and retaliate for its backing of Ukraine.
On Finland’s eastern border, the first 22 miles of a planned 124-mile fence —
15ft-high and fortified with barbed wire, cameras and sensors — was completed
on Wednesday after Helsinki last year accused Moscow of directing migrants to
Finland in a “hybrid operation”.
What is happening on the other side of that border is “high priority”, Jarmo
Lindberg, a Finnish MP and chief of defence from 2014 to 2019, told The
Telegraph.
But echoing the characteristic level-headedness of other Finnish officials
towards the manoeuvres, he said: “The latest movements and signs of
construction are just one more tactical or operational change in a long line of
Russian activities.”
The former general agrees with estimates it will take up to five years to
reconstitute Russia’s military capabilities in the north after they were plundered
for the war in Ukraine. But the process is happening, he said.
The “billion euro question”, however, will be what Russia does next.
If there is a peace agreement in Ukraine, Finns “will be watching where troops
will be relocated across Russia? Will the same units return to our borders or will
new ones be brought. Will it just be troops? Or will they bring air defences,
radar systems, electronic warfare systems?” Mr Lindberg said.
Is Finland ready for what is to come? “We know Russia will always be a threat
for us. We will be ready. We are ready already.”
force-to-take-on-nato-countries/
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Satellite imagery shows what appears to be new tents set up in Kamenka
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