Sky-high evidence. Satellite imagery confirms Russia’s capacity for expanded fortifications at Finnish border while waging full-scale war on Ukraine

Meduza.io

Russia is making progress on an initiative to expand its military presence near the Finnish border, according to a new report by the Finnish media outlet Yle. The military has begun constructing a new artillery brigade installation in Kandalaksha, in the Murmansk region, while simultaneously expanding its hardware on the Karelian Isthmus. This expansion was revealed through new satellite imagery analyzed by journalists. The photos indicate that Russia began large-scale construction last winter at the restricted military facility of Lupche-Savino-2 in Kandalaksha, roughly 110 kilometers (about 70 miles) from Finland. Meduza summarizes Yle’s findings.

Lupche-Savino

Yle notes that increased Russian military activity near Finland is partly due to training new soldiers and servicing older equipment destined for the war in Ukraine. However, Yle’s photos of the Lupche-Savino garrison in Kandalaksha show that Russia is also investing in permanent new infrastructure near the border.

For a strategic analysis of the satellite imagery, Yle consulted retired Finnish military intelligence officer Marko Eklund, who told the journalists that the new infrastructure near Kandalaksha, Petrozavodsk, and St. Petersburg goes beyond Russia’s needs in Ukraine.

According to Eklund, the Lupche-Savino garrison in northwestern Kandalaksha will accommodate more than 2,000 military personnel. Until the early 2000s, the installation housed surface-to-air missile units. More recently, Russia has used the facility as a storage and logistics hub for military engineering units.

Satellite images of the base show that construction crews cleared a forest strip stretching 1.4 kilometers (0.9 miles), excavated along the corridor, and erected several new buildings. According to the Murmansk region’s public plans, Lupche-Savino is expected to receive another 10 structures; however, satellite images indicate that the foundations for this expansion are not yet in place. Satellite images also show that dozens of trucks were moved to the Lupche-Savino base over the past winter.

Marko Eklund told Yle that the Kandalaksha area holds obvious strategic value for Russia, as it controls a potential corridor between Finland and the White Sea. “If this bottleneck were lost in some situation, the land connection from the Kola Peninsula and Russia’s Northern nuclear submarine fleet to the rest of Russia would be cut off,” explained Eklund.

According to Murmansk Governor Andrey Chibis, the work in Kandalaksha is part of the region’s wider 2024–2026 effort to modernize restricted military towns. The price tag for the renovations and new construction is reportedly 42 billion rubles (currently about $535.2 million), with much of this funding allocated to supporting infrastructure — schools, recreation centers, and other services for soldiers and their families stationed in the region.

Uudet satelliittikuvat paljastavat: Venäjä rakentaa sotilaskaupunkia itärajan takanahttps://t.co/zv9kjFVJwu

— Yle Uutiset (@yleuutiset) June 18, 2025

Sapernoye and Petrozavodsk

The satellite images obtained by Yle also show expansions at Russia’s Sapernoye garrison on the Karelian Isthmus, roughly 70 kilometers (about 44 miles) from Finland. In Soviet times, Sapernoye was a major installation, but its guard regiment now consists of only about 500 soldiers. Yle’s images show a strip of land cleared at Sapernoye, presumably for a gas pipeline. According to Eklund, the variety of equipment now visible at the base indicates the presence of engineering units. The largest machines in the satellite photos could be pontoon bridges, he added.

Eklund told Yle that the activity at Sapernoye might be linked to the much larger military base in Kamenka. There, Russia is expanding its motorized rifle brigade into a division, increasing its size from roughly 4,000 soldiers to almost 10,000. “As the number of troops in Kamenka grows, commissioning a second garrison may become necessary. That second one could be Sapernoye, since it has old military infrastructure and good training areas,” Eklund said.

Russia is also creating a completely new 44th Army Corps in the Republic of Karelia, which will increase the number of troops near the Finnish border by roughly 15,000 soldiers. Many of the supplies needed for this endeavor will come from a major base in Petrozavodsk, which Yle journalists have studied through satellite imagery since 2022. The base stores numerous Soviet-era armored vehicles, artillery, and trucks in its hangars. The equipment is repaired there and sent by rail to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Recently, the installation added a fourth hangar.

In December 2024, regional officials announced the establishment of a new railway engineering brigade in Petrozavodsk. The brigade already has a functioning headquarters and an operational battalion. Earlier this year, local journalists reported that the city now hosts a mixed aviation division headquarters, which controls the air base at Besovets airfield near Petrozavodsk. This positions Russian troop management operations even closer to the Finnish border.

Finland’s NATO era

Russian officials say the military expansion near the Finnish border is a necessary response to Finland joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in April 2023. In 2024, Russia restored the Leningrad Military District, where it is now transforming brigades into divisions, doubling or possibly tripling the area’s troop numbers.

Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia stationed roughly 30,000 military personnel on the territory of the current Leningrad Military District. Marko Eklund told Yle that this number could soon climb to almost 100,000 soldiers.

In April 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russia was sending its latest equipment and many new troops to bases along its NATO border. “Most of what is being sent to the front line in Ukraine is old and refurbished Soviet-era arms,” the newspaper explained: “These changes are significant because Russia finally has the capability to wage its full-scale ground war in Ukraine while simultaneously increasing the strength and armament of its ground forces along the Finnish border.”

Summary by Kevin Rothrock

Cover image: Sapernoye, Leningrad region, Russia / Google Maps