Russia is deploying more and more strategic bombers near the Finnish border

According to the newspaper, in October there were about 50 military aircraft in Olenya, most of which, as now, were Tu-95 and Tu-22M bombers.

Olenya Airfield in the Murmansk region saw relatively little activity before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but over the past two years it has become one of the Kremlin’s most important air bases. Russian planes have started to make attack flights from Olenya to Ukraine.

In the satellite image taken on March 17 at 11.41, bombers, transport planes, helicopters and a fighter jet are visible. “Helsingin Sanomat” obtained the image in cooperation with the Finnish company “Terramonitor”, which specializes in the analysis of satellite images.

Among other things, the high-quality photo confirms that the world’s largest supersonic Tu-160 bombers were not stationed in Olenya in the middle of the month, as they were, for example, in the fall of 2022. While the planes may have been hidden or in flight when the image was taken, Helsingin Sanomat said they were not visible in satellite images taken last fall. There are less than a dozen Tu-160 aircraft in Russia.

However, according to an analysis by a Finnish newspaper, on March 17, the airfield had 11 Tu-95s, five Mil helicopters, 37 Tu-22Ms, one Sukhoi fighter jet and three twin-engine and one quad-engine Antonov transport aircraft. Some of the Tu-22Ms had been parked under cloudy skies for a long time, given how the snow around them had been cleared.

Russia has been forced to move its bombers to the Olenya base as airfields closer to Ukraine are targeted by Kiev’s drone attacks. However, Olenia is so far from Ukraine that bomb-equipped drones cannot reach it, at least for now.

However, according to Helsingin Sanomat, keeping the bombers at Olenja is a strategic problem for Russia, as the airfield is only about 150 kilometers from the Finnish border and would be an easy target for the alliance’s missiles in the event of a conflict between Russia and NATO.