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 massive column was first spotted on February 28 after coming to a halt on the main highway leading south to the capital due to breakdowns, fuel shortages, and supply issues.

It began in Belarus and has been making its way south towards Kyiv via the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

However, forces have become stymied as a result of reports of food, fuel, and equipment shortages.

However, new satellite images taken on Thursday following a break in cloud cover show commanders on the move once more, breaking up the column that had become vulnerable to Ukraine counterattacks.

Rocket artillery and supply trucks were seen taking up firing positions in fields near Berestyanka, a small town 30 miles north of Kyiv, with their tyre tracks visible in the countryside.

Vehicles were seen parked in forests not far away in Lubyanka as part of a possible camouflage attempt.

The convoy is believed to contain 15,000 troops, as well as fuel tankers and ammunition trucks.

On Friday, President Putin authorised the deployment of up to 16,000 mercenaries from the Middle East alongside pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine.

The move would allow Russia to send battle-hardened fighters from conflicts like Syria into Ukraine without risking additional Russian casualties.

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, and the territorial defence is joining,” he said on Thursday in a televised interview.

“Even people who never intended to change their clothes in their lives are now in uniform with machine guns.”

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.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, the battle for Kyiv has officially begun.

According to the Pentagon, Russian tanks are less than nine miles from Ukraine’s parliament.

Putin’s forces are now facing a long and bloody mission to seize the capital, which is thought to be the primary goal of their “special military operation” to destabilise Ukraine’s government and install a pro-Moscow puppet regime.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has remained in Kyiv, warned on Thursday night that Russia appears to be preparing to launch a chemical or biological weapons attack in the country, after accusing Ukraine of developing such weapons on its soil.