{"id":1404646,"date":"2026-06-13T14:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/russia-is-building-up-troops-on-nato-borders-when-to-expect-a-strike\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T14:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:11:05","slug":"russia-is-building-up-troops-on-nato-borders-when-to-expect-a-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/russia-is-building-up-troops-on-nato-borders-when-to-expect-a-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia is building up troops on NATO borders: when to expect a strike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Kremlin may be preparing a provocation with a staged occupation and rapid withdrawal from the territory of Estonia in order to sow discord in the North Atlantic Alliance and weaken European faith in American support.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> This opinion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2gzzRDy1OaU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was expressed<\/a> in a comment to &#8220;Pryamoy&#8221; by Viktoria Vdovichenko, co-director of the &#8220;Future of Ukraine&#8221; programs at the Center for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n<p> Citing intelligence data, she reported on the active expansion of Russian military bases on common borders, which could result in a test of NATO&#8217;s strength by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;The fact that Estonia, and not only Estonia, but also the Baltic and Nordic Baltic countries in this case, that is, Sweden, Finland and Norway in particular, are already directly, absolutely sincerely and openly declaring that such a threat exists by the end of 2026, is no secret to anyone,&#8221; Vdovichenko noted.<\/p>\n<p> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2gzzRDy1OaU&#038;t=645s<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/remote-strikes-instead-of-invasion-how-russia-is-preparing-for-war-with-nato\/\">Remote strikes instead of invasion: how Russia is preparing for war with NATO<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p> According to her, satellite images of journalistic investigations record the expansion of Russian military bases on the borders with Finland, Norway and Estonia. Swedish and Finnish intelligence predict attempts to test NATO&#8217;s borders not in the distant future, but by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n<p> At the same time, the Alliance&#8217;s political response remains vague due to the fact that the countries of Southern Europe, in particular Spain, Portugal, and Italy, do not see an immediate threat and continue to develop business interests with the Russian side, added Victoria Vdovichenko.<\/p>\n<p> As a reminder, <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/za-kilka-kilometriv-vid-finliandii-rf-buduie-velykyy-viyskovyy-ob-iekt\/\">construction of a new large military base is underway<\/a> in Petrozavodsk, Russia, near the border with Finland. According to the Finnish publication Yle, work began in the spring of this year and about ten barracks are already being built on the site.<\/p>\n<p> Experts estimate that the base could potentially accommodate between four and six thousand troops. It is possible that the facility could become a deployment site for new units that Russia is forming in Karelia near the Finnish border.<\/p>\n<p> Meanwhile, the Commander-in-Chief of the Latvian Armed Forces, Kaspars Pudans, said that Russia may try to take advantage of the &#8220;window of opportunity&#8221; and is considering <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/krainy-baltii-pid-ryzykom-latviia-poperedyla-pro-dii-rf-do-2028\/\">a scenario of potential actions against the Baltic states<\/a> by the end of 2028, while Europe has not yet completed rearmament.<\/p>\n<p> Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">X<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> , and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kremlin may be preparing a provocation with a staged occupation and rapid withdrawal from the territory of Estonia in order to sow discord in the North Atlantic Alliance and weaken European faith in American support. This opinion was expressed in a comment to &#8220;Pryamoy&#8221; by Viktoria Vdovichenko, co-director of the &#8220;Future of Ukraine&#8221; programs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1404553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76874],"class_list":["post-1404646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1404553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}