On Monday, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) published aerial photographs that the group says show the facility in the Baltic outpost has been under major renovation since 2016.
FAS said the images document refurbishments at the site back in 2016, when one of three underground bunkers at the location was excavated and deepened before it appeared to have been covered over in recent months, “presumably to return (to) operational status soon.”
“The features of the site suggest it could potentially serve Russian Air Force or Navy dual-capable forces. But it could also be a joint site, potentially servicing nuclear warheads for both Air Force, Navy, Army, air-defense, and coastal defense forces in the region,” Kristensen wrote.
“It is to my knowledge the only nuclear weapons storage site in the Kaliningrad region,” he continued.
Russian foothold in Europe
Kristensen said that Russia maintained that nuclear warheads are kept in “central” storage believed to be inside mainland Russia. He proposed that the facility in Kaliningrad “could potentially function as a forward storage site that would be supplied with warheads from central storage sites in a crisis.”
Tensions in Eastern Europe have been building since Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Source : Nbcnewyork