RUSSIA has chillingly stationed 18 nuclear-capable strategic bomber planes close to the Nato border.
It comes amid threats from Vladimir Putin over the UK’s plans to send devastating missiles to Ukraine.
A haunting new satellite image reveals a number of nuke jets readied at Olenya Air Base in Russia‘s Kola Peninsula – less than 130 miles from its border with Finland and Norway.
The picture – taken on May 7 – reveal 14 Tu-95s, two Tu-160s, and two Tu-22 nuke bombers lined up at the base.
Anti-Kremlin Russian news site Meduza reported: “A radio observer monitoring Russian strategic aviation said that aircraft took off from the Olenya Air Base nearly every day last week, including to participate in combat missions in Ukraine.”
Last month, two Tu-160 planes were spotted skirting the coast of Britain amid mounting tensions between Russia and the West.
The Tu-160 – called the Blackjack by Nato– is a supersonic variable-sweep wing strategic missile-carrying bomber dating from the Soviet era.
It is designed to strike enemy targets in remote areas with nuclear and conventional weapons.
Along with Tu-95MS bombers, the planes are the mainstay of Russia’s long-range aviation.
The Tu-95 strategic bombers – known as Bears – are some of the biggest aircraft in Putin’s air force, capable of hauling cruise missiles and massive nuclear bombs.
They are the only propeller-powered strategic bombers still operational today, and first flew 70 years ago.
The bombers have been used to blast infrastructure in Ukraine with non-nuclear weapons during the invasion.
Putin even previously deployed the planes to buzz Britain amid mounting tensions over the Ukraine war.
And the Tu-22 has an operational range of almost 7,000km, putting all of Europe and the east coast of the United States within its scope.
In December, humiliated Putin was understood to have hidden his fleet of Tu-95 bombers after Ukraine’s stunning drone strikes.
Satellite pictures revealed the Russian President had moved six of the aircraft following the successful attack at the Engels-2 air base.
Volodymyr Zelenky‘s men managed to obliterate two of the terrifying planes at a high-security Russian airbase in the Saratov region.
The move seems to have rattled his red-faced foe Putin, who hastily stowed away half a dozen of his Tu-95 planes, according to Schemes Twitter’s satellite evidence.
It comess after Putin threatened the UK amid plans to ship horrifying Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said last week the long-range missiles will allow Ukraine to further push Putin’s forces back into Russia.
Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles can travel up to 600mph and blast targets up to 350 miles away.
It means the weapons could hit targets at maximum range in just 35 minutes – travelling nearly half the length of the UK.
Putin is continuing to dangle the threat of nuclear escalation over Ukraine.
It’s believed his fate is now tied to his success or failure in the war and he is desperate to plough on with the invasion.
Close to 200,000 Russian soldiers are now believed to have died since the start of the war in February last year, many of them young conscripts from the poorest and most remote parts of the vast country.
