RUSSIA is thought to be planning another major assault on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, after troops were spotted moving towards the city.
Satellite imagery shows Russian tanks and other vehicles approaching Kyiv, while other aerial footage appears to show military equipment stationed outside the capital.
The images were captured near Antonov Airport, just miles from the city, by Maxar, which has been monitoring the invasion since its inception.
Along the main road, a large military convoy can be seen.
Images appear to show that the infamous 40-mile “death convoy” of Russian vehicles that had been stalled near Kyiv for nearly two weeks has now “disappeared,” as rocket artillery is being moved into firing positions for an assault on the city.
The UK Defence Ministry stated today that Russia is likely to resume its offensive in Kyiv in the coming days.
The images were captured near Antonov Airport, just miles from the city, by Maxar, which has been monitoring the invasion since its inception.
Along the main road, a large military convoy can be seen.
Images appear to show that the infamous 40-mile “death convoy” of Russian vehicles that had been stalled near Kyiv for nearly two weeks has now “disappeared,” as rocket artillery is being moved into firing positions for an assault on the city.
The UK Defence Ministry stated today that Russia is likely to resume its offensive in Kyiv in the coming days.
Rocket artillery and supply trucks were pictured taking up firing positions in fields outside Berestyanka, a small town 30 miles north of Kyiv, their tyre tracks visible in the countryside.
An estimated 15,000 troops along with fuel tankers and ammunition trucks are believed to be in the convoy.
On Friday, President Putin gave the green light for up to 16,000 mercenaries from the Middle East to be deployed alongside pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine.
The move would allow Russia to send battle-hardened fighters from conflicts such as Syria into Ukraine without risking further Russian casualties.
It comes as Kyiv’s mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, declared that his city has “become a fortress” in preparation for another feared Russian onslaught.
Around 2 million people, or more than half of the city’s population, are thought to have evacuated.
As the encirclement of Kyiv appears to be underway, Russian forces attacked from the west and east late Wednesday and early Thursday.
A defiant Mayor Klitschko, on the other hand, warned the Russians that their assault on the capital would not be easy.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council that 16,000 volunteers in the Middle East were ready to fight alongside Russian-backed forces in the breakaway Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
“If you see that there are these people who want to come to help the people living in Donbas on their own accord, not for money, then we need to give them what they want and help them get to the conflict zone,” Putin said from the Kremlin.
It comes as Kyiv’s mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, declared that his city has “become a fortress” in preparation for another feared Russian onslaught.
Around 2 million people, or more than half of the city’s population, are thought to have evacuated.
As the encirclement of Kyiv appears to be underway, Russian forces attacked from the west and east late Wednesday and early Thursday.
A defiant Mayor Klitschko, on the other hand, warned the Russians that their assault on the capital would not be easy.
“Every street, every house is being fortified, the territorial defence is joining,” he said in a televised interview on Thursday.
“Even people who in their lives never intended to change their clothes, now they are in uniform with machine guns in their hands.”
Over the last two days, Russian troops launched two major attacks, one on the devastated western city of Irpin and the other on the eastern district of Brovary.
They have continued to face stiff opposition from Ukrainian forces.
The video shows the moment Russian tanks and armoured vehicles were bombarded in a fierce Ukrainian ambush and forced to retreat.
Colonel Andrei Zakharov, a Russian tank commander, was reportedly killed in the attack at Brovary, making him the latest of Putin’s top military brass to be killed in Ukraine’s invasion.
Vladimir Putin bestowed the Order of Courage on Colonel Zakharov in 2016.
Ukraine’s interior ministry adviser, Vadym Denysenko, said his country’s forces had successfully repelled a Russian attempt to cross the Irpin River in the town of Moshchun.
We discovered that if you want to learn about Russia’s plans, you should look at what Russia accuses others of “He stated.
He said in an emotional late-night address to his people: “We are being blamed as if we had attacked a peaceful Russia. And now what?
“What does it mean that we’re being accused of planning chemical-weapons attacks? Have you made the decision to ‘de-chemicalize’ Ukraine? What do you mean? What about ammonia? What about phosphorus?”
He went on to say: “What else do you have in store for us? What are you planning to target with chemical weapons? Maripul has a maternity hospital? Kharkiv has a church? A hospital for children?”
Russia appears to have been completely unprepared for the fierce opposition it has encountered in Ukraine thus far.
General Dmytro Marchenko of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed this week that in the midst of the invasion, Russians were leaving the bodies of their dead in the streets.
“It’s difficult to say, but their corpses are food for stray dogs,” he told The Times.
“We are unable to retrieve them due to ongoing Russian fire in those areas.”
But there are now fears that they are attempting to lay siege to Kyiv, encircling it and cutting off supply and escape routes while shelling it indiscriminately.
Britain has today issued a warning to Vladimir Putin not to use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Chris Philp, the UK’s digital minister, urged the Russian tyrant not to “cross that line,” amid fears that the Kremlin is preparing to ramp up its savagery.
It comes amid reports that Russian troops in Ukraine have been given gas masks.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense released images of captured Russian gas masks, which were part of a hoard that also included World War II helmets and equipment.
Moscow has already begun spreading false information that Ukraine is preparing to use chemical weapons and has suggested that the US is involved.
Making such baseless claims is a classic Kremlin false flag that the regime can later use to try to avoid responsibility for its own atrocities.
Boris Johnson said last night that the disinformation campaign was “straight out of a cynical, barbaric government’s playbook.”
The White House also warned that the “absurd propaganda” was simply a pretext for intensifying its terror campaign against innocent civilians.
Mr Philp warned this morning that if Russia uses biological weapons against innocent civilians, the West will respond much more forcefully.
“The use of chemical weapons, particularly in a war involving a large number of civilians, would be an outrage against humanity,” he said.
Boris Johnson said last night that the disinformation campaign was “straight out of a cynical, barbaric government’s playbook.”
The White House also warned that the “absurd propaganda” was simply a pretext for intensifying its terror campaign against innocent civilians.
Mr Philp warned this morning that if Russia uses biological weapons against innocent civilians, the West will respond much more forcefully.
“The use of chemical weapons, particularly in a war involving a large number of civilians, would be an outrage against humanity,” he said.
According to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, a shell hit a building containing equipment that, if damaged, could release nuclear radiation.
However, the president’s office claims that there has been no change in background radiation.
The official website of the parliament said in a tweet that fighting near the Institute of Physics and Technology was still going on.
“In Kharkiv, eyewitnesses report a fire in the building of Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology,” Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security tweeted.
“The structure contains equipment that, if damaged, could result in radioactive pollution of the environment.”
Russia was accused of committing “an act of nuclear terrorism” by Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate.
