DISINFO: Russia never expanded its military infrastructure toward Western Europe
SUMMARY
Russian military infrastructure never expanded toward Western Europe. It was only Western military presence which has expanded in the opposite direction.
RESPONSE
The claim advances a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative concerning Russia's illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Federation has consistently expanded its military infrastructure along its Western borders over the last three decades.
Since 2016, Russia has significantly militarised Kaliningrad, transferring troops and weapons and forming the 11th Army Corps, reportedly comprising up to 18,000 army personnel and a number of tanks, APCs, and artillery.
Since 2014, Russia has also increased its army presence in the regions of Ukraine it illegally occupies, having reactivated defunct Soviet military bases and built new ones. This included turning a civilian airfield in Belbek into a full-fledged military base, now among over three dozen facilities in the occupied peninsula from which Russia has launched strategic bomber aircraft and air assault troops to bomb civilian infrastructure and deploy air assault detachments to secure more of Ukraine's sovereign territory.
Moreover, in 2023 Russia was reported to have deployed an unspecified number of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a country bordering three NATO member states.
See here for further debunking by POLYGRAPH.info.