Denmark’s national broadcaster, in cooperation with intelligence services, released the images which appear to show construction work over the past two years, including new barracks, warehouses and army vehicles.
The Pechenga compound is just five miles from the Norwegian border, while Russia’s Murmansk area, near Finland and Norway, could now house 17,000 additional soldiers within striking range of neighbours.
A site near the Estonian border has also amassed large numbers of military vehicles.
“Putin is a master of the unexpected,” Former Army officer Col Richard Kemp told The Sun.
“What is most concerning is that neither the UK nor our European NATO allies are ready.”
NATO is a 32-member alliance established in 1949 to counter the threat of Soviet aggression. It now focuses on safeguarding member nations through a collective defence pledge, whereby an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all.
The organisation has long been regarded as the bedrock of Western security.
Col Kemp continued: “In his resignation statement today John Healey said our intelligence assessed that Russia might attack as soon as 2030.
“And his resignation shows that the Labour government will not put sufficient funds into defence to make us ready for that.”
Col Kemp said that the reality is that the UK should be ready now and always to face all threats that might come its way.
“It is shameful that neither this government nor its Conservative predecessors took defence seriously enough to protect our country,” he said.
“If our forces have to go into action without enough troops or equipment they will have blood on their hands.”
Russia has denied any plans to attack NATO.
Former intelligence officer Philip Ingram said the build-up is part of a long game by the Kremlin.
He said that the preparation of the bases is to do two things: firstly, to respond to the expansion of NATO by suggesting a real capability to threaten its borders over a very long front and secondly, to set the condition that Putin can rapidly rearm and deploy to threaten NATO borders if the Ukraine war is finished.
“This is preparation for a second Cold War. He can’t man or equip these new bases at the moment with any credible capabilities.”
Meanwhile, Danish Defence Academy analyst Anders Puck Nielsen warned the Baltic region could not face tens of thousands of Russian troops.
“If Russia just took some of [its troops in Ukraine] and transferred them to a direct confrontation with NATO in the Baltic countries, for example, then we would come under tremendous pressure because we are not ready to face 50,000 or 100,000 Russian soldiers in the Baltic countries,” he said.
“We’re not even close to being able to defend ourselves.”
