Russia is modernizing nuclear bases near Europe: satellite images appear
Kyiv • UNN
Russia is modernizing nuclear weapon bases near Europe, including in Kaliningrad, 270 km from Sweden. Experts say that Russia is using nuclear threats to sow panic in the West.
Russia is modernizing its nuclear bases near Europe - one of them is 270 km from Sweden, SVT reports with reference to satellite images, writes UNN.
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The Swedish publication reports that it has seen new satellite images showing missile depots, training grounds and fenced railway stations.
"We are closely monitoring Russia's capabilities in this area," said Swedish Defense Minister Paul Jonson.
New satellite images from Planet Labs, which SVT published, "show that at least five Russian nuclear weapons bases in the vicinity of Sweden have been developed and modernized in recent years."
"We are aware of this and have been monitoring it for a long time. It concerns both Russian investment in nuclear weapons potential and the development of a new doctrine," said Paul Jonson, the country's defense minister.
New satellite images from May 2025, writes SVT, show, among other things:
- according to nuclear weapons researchers from the American organization FAS, "at the Osipovichi base in Belarus, a Soviet nuclear weapons storage facility is being modernized with three levels of fencing, a new platform for rail transport and air defense systems";
- "in Kaliningrad, the nuclear weapons base has been modernized with new buildings, a triple fence and new communication capabilities, 270 kilometers from the Swedish territorial border." According to the Polish government, about 100 units of tactical nuclear weapons are stored in Kaliningrad;
- "large new buildings have been built on Novaya Zemlya, experts call the base Russia's most important base for nuclear weapons testing";
- "about 50 bunkers-storage facilities for submarine-based ballistic missiles have been built on the Kola Peninsula, as well as a pier for loading missiles onto submarines."
Experts call Russian nuclear weapons Russia's most important trump card. The country's political leadership likes to flaunt weapons and regularly scares the outside world to try to break through on the international stage, the publication writes.
"Russia has lowered the threshold for nuclear weapons threats, and we have seen that since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it has done so more than 200 times at various political levels," said Paul Jonson.
William Alberk, a senior fellow at the Pacific Forum who previously worked on nuclear weapons policy at NATO, says Russia is trying to turn Western fear into a weapon they can use.
"Russia knows that these threats cause panic in the West, so they have been experimenting with escalating nuclear threats for 25 years, and use it whenever they want something to go their way," he said.