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Russia Upgrading Nuclear Bases in Kaliningrad and Belarus, Satellite Images Reveal
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Swedish broadcaster SVT has obtained satellite images that track developments at five Russian nuclear sites near Europe in recent years, the outlet reported on June 16.
Images provided by Planet Labs and dated from May 2025 show that a Russian base in Kaliningrad, believed to store nuclear weapons, has undergone significant expansion and upgrades.
In Kaliningrad, a nuclear base has been upgraded with new buildings, triple fences, and new communication functions. Polish officials have previously estimated that the Kaliningrad facility could house around one hundred tactical nuclear warheads.
“We are aware of it and we have been following it for a long time. It is about both Russian investments in nuclear weapons capability and the development of a new doctrine,” said Swedish Minister of Defense Pål Jonson.
The agency added that an old Soviet-era nuclear storage facility is also being upgraded at the Osipovichi base in Belarus. Recent imagery shows a new railway loading platform and air defense systems installed at the site.
Numerous new structures have been identified at the Novaya Zemlya base, which experts consider a key location for Russia’s nuclear testing activities.
Additionally, in the Kola Peninsula, which borders Finland and Norway, about 50 new bunker-like storage facilities for submarine-launched ballistic missiles have been built. A dedicated pier for loading missiles onto submarines has also been constructed.
“Russia has lowered the threshold for threatening with nuclear weapons and we have seen since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that it has been done over 200 times at various political levels,” Jonson added.
On June 11, Russian leader Vladimir Putin boasted that Russia possesses the most modern nuclear triad in the world. At the same time, one of the key issues addressed was the gap between the deployment of new weapons and the lack of prepared infrastructure.
