In 2025, Russia began to restore a Soviet-era military base in Petrozavodsk and plans to build new garrisons in Karelia near the Finnish border, Finland’s public broadcaster Yle reports, citing satellite imagery analysis and Russian regional media.
A key part of Yle’s investigation is satellite imagery showing that as recently as 2024 the military site in Petrozavodsk’s Rybka neighborhood was in disrepair. The former Soviet base was partly overgrown, buildings were dilapidated, and there was virtually no permanent military presence. In previous years, the site was used only sporadically - including as a training range - and a few years ago even saw temporary trenches dug on its grounds.
The picture began to shift in spring 2025. Satellite images obtained by Yle show extensive clearing on the base: vegetation removed, leveled pads created, and military hardware appearing on site. Images from April 2025 show trucks and other army vehicles that were absent a year earlier - the first visual signs of the facility’s revival, analysts say.
The most striking changes appear in fall 2025. In October, more than 50 vehicles were visible on the base, including army trucks, some positioned near maintenance and service facilities. Military expert Marko Eklund, who analyzed the imagery for Yle, says that density suggests at least a transport unit is forming. It could be the logistics core of the new 44th Army Corps or even the beginnings of a separate railway brigade tasked with moving troops and supplies in Karelia, he said.
Eklund adds that the restored Rybka base cannot accommodate a formation of up to 15,000 personnel on its own, framing the activity as an initial step in a broader military buildout across the region.
Plans for new military facilities in Petrozavodsk are also reflected in Karelia’s regional media. In November 2025, Karelinform reported that city council members discussed exempting the Defense Ministry from fees for removing green plantings tied to the planned construction of new military units. City council chair Nadezhda Dreizis said stationing a new military contingent in Karelia was “on the orders of the President of Russia,” calling the region a “frontline outpost on NATO’s border.”
Earlier, in April 2025, Karelia head Artur Parfenchikov said he met with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Fradkov to discuss basing an army corps in the republic. He said the region is ready to allocate land, bring gas service to garrisons and build housing for troops and their families.
In May 2025, the outlet Respublika also reported that personnel of the 44th Army Corps had begun relocating to Karelia with their families. Parfenchikov said this was not the “arrival of new units” but their “return,” adding that Karelia “has always been the country’s outpost.”
Yle also notes Russia is expanding military infrastructure elsewhere in the northwest. Near the town of Kandalaksha, about 100 kilometers from Finland’s border, construction is underway on a base for new artillery and engineer brigades. Satellite images show several large buildings were erected over summer and fall 2025.
Some units of the 44th Army Corps, according to Yle, are training at a base near the town of Luga in Russia’s Leningrad region. In fall 2025, a significant portion of equipment was moved out, which experts say may have been sent to the war against Ukraine.
Finland’s military intelligence says in its latest assessment that as these projects advance, Russia’s ability to conduct operations in the northwest will grow, though the pace of buildup is constrained by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
