Ukraine: 40-mile Russian convoy fans out into towns and forests around Kyiv with artillery into firing position
A massive convoy outside the Ukrainian capital has split up and fanned out into towns and forests around Kyiv, according to new satellite photos, with artillery pieces raised into firing position in a potentially ominous movement of the Russian military.
Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed that the 40-mile convoy of vehicles, tanks and artillery has broken up and been redeployed, the company said.
The photos emerged amid more international efforts to isolate and sanction Russia, particularly after a deadly airstrike on a maternity hospital in the port city of Mariupol that Western and Ukrainian officials decried as a war crime.
The US and other nations were poised today to announce the revocation of Russia’s “most favoured nation” trade status, which would allow tariffs to be imposed on Russian imports.
Unbowed by the sanctions, Russia kept up its bombardment of Mariupol while Kyiv braced for an onslaught, its mayor boasting that the capital had become practically a fortress protected by armed civilians.
Armoured units were seen in towns near the Antonov Airport north of the city. Some of the vehicles have moved into forests, Maxar reported, with towed howitzers nearby in position to open fire.
The convoy had massed outside the city early last week, but its advance appeared to stall as reports of food and fuel shortages circulated. US officials said Ukrainian troops also targeted the convoy with anti-tank missiles.
Still, the immediacy of the threat to Kyiv was unclear. A US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity said Russian forces moving toward Kyiv had advanced about three miles in the past 24 hours, with some elements as close as nine miles from the city.
The official gave no indication that the convoy had dispersed or otherwise repositioned in a significant way, saying some vehicles were seen moving off the road into the tree line in recent days.
In Mariupol, a southern seaport of 430,000, the situation was increasingly dire as civilians trapped inside the city scrounged for food and fuel. More than 1,300 people have died in the 10-day siege of the frigid city, according to deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Residents have no heat or phone service, and many have no electricity. Night-time temperatures are regularly below freezing, and daytime ones normally hover just above it. Bodies are being buried in mass graves. The streets are littered with burned-out cars, broken glass and splintered trees.
“They have a clear order to hold Mariupol hostage, to mock it, to constantly bomb and shell it.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation
Repeated attempts to send in food and medicine and evacuate civilians have been thwarted by Russian shelling, Ukrainian authorities said.
The number of refugees fleeing the country topped 2.3 million, and some 100,000 people have been evacuated during the past two days from seven cities under Russian blockade in the north and centre of the country, including the Kyiv suburbs, Mr Zelensky said.
He told Russian leaders that the invasion will backfire on them as their economy is strangled. Western sanctions have already dealt a severe blow, causing the ruble to plunge, foreign businesses to flee and prices to rise sharply.
“You will definitely be prosecuted for complicity in war crimes,” Mr Zelenskyy said in a video address, warning that “you will be hated by Russian citizens”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed such talk, saying the country has endured sanctions before.
″We will overcome them,” he said at a televised meeting of government officials. He did, however, acknowledge the sanctions create “certain challenges”.
In addition to those who have fled the country, millions have been driven from their homes inside Ukraine. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said about 2 million people, half the population of the metropolitan area, have left the capital.
“Every street, every house… is being fortified,” he said. “Even people who in their lives never intended to change their clothes, now they are in uniform with machine guns in their hands.”
Western officials said Russian forces have made little progress on the ground in recent days and are seeing heavier losses and stiffer Ukrainian resistance than Moscow apparently anticipated. But Mr Putin’s forces have used air power and artillery to pummel Ukraine’s cities.