Satellite images obtained by Yle reveal for the first time that Russia has begun to renovate a Soviet-era garrison area in Petrozavodsk, which has been mostly empty since the 1990s.
According to local media, the construction of a new garrison will begin this year in the Petrozavodsk area, about 160 km from the Finnish border. The move has not previously been reported in Western media.
Satellite images obtained by Yle also show construction work progressing further north in Kandalaksha, on the White Sea near the Kola Peninsula.
Last summer, Yle reported that Russia had begun building a military garrison for new artillery and engineer brigades in Kandalaksha.
Russia is concentrating armed forces in Petrozavodsk
Most of the Russian Armed Forces' equipment in the Republic of Karelia is concentrated in the regional capital, Petrozavodsk.
Petrozavodsk has a large air base and equipment depot, including new equipment hangars, as Yle has previously reported.
The garrison is located in the Rybka district, near the thermal power plant.
According to Finnish military expert Major (Ret.) Marko Eklund, the garrison under renovation will probably be used by a new army corps. In 2024, Russia established the 44th Army Corps in the Republic of Karelia, which in practice means about 15,000 more soldiers.
At most, a small proportion of these new ground troops have arrived in Petrozavodsk by now.
Accommodation and training areas must be arranged for them.
In the summer of 2024, the Rybka garrison was still an overgrown, dilapidated area, although it was used for training. For example, 2–3 years ago, trenches were dug in the yard. Last year, there were more significant changes.
Satellite images from last spring reveal that trees had been cleared from large areas and military vehicles had appeared in the squares. You can see the changes by sliding the image:
The clearest sign of the garrison's renovation is the presence of trucks and other vehicles. In the latest photo, taken in October 2025, there are more than 50 of them.
A close-up from last spring shows a truck that has been driven onto a service ramp.
Eklund says that the trucks indicate an armoured brigade, intended to provide transport to support the establishment of an army corps.
"Some kind of maintenance force seems to have been established there, or it may even be the beginnings of a brigade of Railway Troops to be established in the Karelian region," says Eklund, who analysed the satellite images for Yle.
Eklund, who has had a long career in Finnish military intelligence, has monitored the Russian Armed Forces for more than 25 years.
According to Eklund, there are few usable old garrisons in the Petrozavodsk region and elsewhere in Karelia, so many new ones will likely be built there.
"The garrison in Rybka is insufficient for the army corps. Very large construction projects are to be expected in Karelia," Eklund says.
New troop barracks in Petrozavodsk this year
Due to the increase in the number of soldiers, there are plans to build many new barracks areas in the Petrozavodsk region. The regional news website Karelinform quotes top officials from Petrozavodsk and the Republic of Karelia as saying that new construction will begin this year.
The Petrozavodsk City Council has declared that increasing the number of troops is the will of President Vladimir Putin, so the city wants to facilitate it.
"Our region has been assigned a responsible task: to be our country's outpost on the Nato border. Our task as patriots and representatives of the people is to help in this," city council chair Nadezhda Dreyzis said in November, according to Karelinform.
The head of the Republic of Karelia, Artur Parfenchikov, has negotiated with the Russian leadership on issues such as the construction of a gas pipeline to the military residential village of Chalna, near the Petrozavodsk air base. There are also plans for a health centre in the area. The projects have been reported by the Karelia-based news service Faktor.
In an interview with Karelian TV last spring, Parfenchikov said that the arrival of soldiers in Petrozavodsk would also bring a new civilian population to the city.
"It's not just officers or contract soldiers, but also their family members and children. We’re expecting quite a large number of children," Parfenchikov said.
So far, most of the troops in the new 44th Army Corps are fighting in Ukraine, including in the Kharkiv region. The unit was formed in 2024 in the Leningrad Military District of Karelia.
Progress in construction of Kandalaksha garrison
Further north, in Kandalaksha, the deployment of new troops is much further ahead. Yle reported last June that Russia is building several large buildings in the Lupche-Savino garrison for a new artillery brigade and an engineer brigade.
Satellite images show how the construction work has progressed since last May. Several buildings have risen from foundations to ridge height while new buildings have been started.
According to a construction plan published by the Murmansk regional government, about 10 new buildings will be completed in the area.
Eklund estimates that the two Lupche-Savino brigades will include about 2,000 soldiers altogether.
The garrison is located near the Kola Peninsula, just over 100km from the Finnish border, a strategically crucial area for Russia.
Soldiers training for Ukraine in Luga
No new major construction is visible in Kandalaksha yet, and the garrisons are in poor condition. According to Eklund, that is why 44th Army Corps troops have been recruited and trained for Ukraine in Luga, south of St Petersburg.
In Luga, a large amount of equipment disappeared from the garrison area last autumn. Eklund suspects that it was sent to the Russian front in its nearly-four-year war of aggression against Ukraine.
Sliding the image shows how the vehicle fleet was removed in October.
Russia is also strengthening its troops in the Luga region. According to Eklund, the motor rifle brigade that was stationed in Luga before the war has been upgraded into a division, which means that its personnel is likely to at least triple to about 8,000–10,000.
The changes just over Finland’s eastern border indicate that Russia is following through on its pledge to reinforce its borders with Nato countries. Finland has the longest of these, extending about 1,340km.
"We are in favour of cooperation, but if our neighbours behave in a certain way, the answer will come. And of course there will be garrisons," the head of the Republic of Karelia, Artur Parfenchikov, said in a TV interview last spring.
In its latest annual review, published on 22 January, Finland's military intelligence estimates that "As these changes occur, Russia’s ability to wage war in areas close to Finland improves significantly".
However, the pace will be slow as long as the war in Ukraine continues.
"In the current situation, Russia cannot afford to have men fit for war watching over us Finns," says Eklund.
